Joey Essex returns his Doberman puppy after facing criticism over the adopted dog’s illegally cropped ears

Joey Essex will no longer be adopting a dog he teased online after facing criticism over its illegally cropped ears.

The former Only Way Is Essex star uploaded a now-deleted photo to Instagram of a dog he was set to adopt, with the caption: “newest member”.

However, the 32-year-old was quick to receive criticism from animal welfare advocates and fans due to Dobermans cropped ears.

Veterinarian Sean McCormack took to Instagram to shame the celebrity for “parading a mutilated dog”.

He told his 8,000 followers that the cropped ears were for “a tough guy look, status, showing off you have money and are wealthy enough to need and import a so called “protection dog”.”

A dog rescue charity, Hope Rescue, shared the picture of Joey’s soon-to-be dog on Twitter, asking if the Only Way Is Essex star has “fallen victim to the normalisation of ear cropping”.

Once Joey was made aware of the “cruel procedure”, he decided to cancel the adoption to show that he does not “justify” it.

He told the Mail Online: “I really wanted to give the dog a home, I fell in love with him.

“But me taking him on as a pet would justify this cruel procedure, which will give the wrong message to my fans and followers.

“I’m an animal lover.”

Ear cropping is illegal in England and Wales under Section 5 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 - however, it’s still a common procedure among dog owners and breeders.

There are no health benefits to cropped ears and the painful procedure is done purely for cosmetic reasons.

The reality star has since urged his 1.8 million followers to sign his Kept Animals Bill petition to make it illegal to import dogs with cropped ears into the UK.

Jordan Shelley, an animal welfare campaigner who set up the petition, previously called out Joey on Twitter.

The petition had more than 67,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Joey is not the first celebrity to face this kind of criticism after Love Island’s Jack Fincham, Diversity’s Jordan Banjo and Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinncock also received backlash for their chosen pets.

In March 2021, Jack received a lot of messages from fans about one of his five dogs, Elvis - he later spoke out saying he “absolutely does not condone” the procedure.

He also explained that Elvis was a rescue dog and that “no money was exchanged” for the pet who has his ears and tail cropped.

In December 2020, Jordan responded to backlash about his dog Serg in an Instagram Story.

He said: "I can’t pretend to have known all of the information on cropped ears.

"I don’t even want to pretend to be misinformed, to be blunt I didn’t even think about it in the first instance.

"I didn’t get his ears cut, I didn’t even import him, first time I saw Serg he was six months old."

In 2021, Leigh-Anne also faced criticism when Kyro, her American Bulldog with cropped ears, was shown in the BBC Three documentary Race, Pop & Power.