People who don't fight their dogs still get ears cropped for aesthetic reasons either to satisfy a "standard" or to make the dog look more feral and aggressive. I've even had someone try to justify the practice to me by saying that cropping the ears decreases/prevents painful inner ear infections. Beagles are a breed that seems to more likely to get alot of ear infections based on the ones I've seen and from people I've known who own them and no one crops the ears on that breed.