Dehorning of Cattle

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 48, 19 November 1932, Page 13

Dehorning of Cattle

A vigorous protest is entered by J. Sigley against the Bills introduced lathe House providing for registration of poultry runs and the compulsory dehorning of cattle. Neither of the Bills, the correspondent contends, would serve any good purpose, more especially at the present juncture. Most of the small poultry runs, he adds, are managed by the housewife or the daughters as a side-line or hobby, and to limit them to 12 hens or ducks as proposed in the Bill in order to escape registration is most unwarrantable and too ridiculous for words. Referring to the proposed compulsory dehorning of cattle, the correspondent writes: "is it possible that any Government would go so far as to say a farmer must not keep a beast on his place un- | less he has cut off its hornsl? It is a most extraordinary thing that while cattle have had horns from the commencement of time and people have lived, handled and made money out of them with their horns on, now they have come to the conclusion that if they cut off their horns they probably would make a little more, irrespective of what the beast must suffer in the process of dehorning. Are we getting more greedy , or less civilised ? “ The Hon. C. E. Macmillan says the pain of dehorning is no worse than a human being having a tooth extracted — it would be interesting to know just how he gained that knowledge. Mr. W. J. Polson considers the Bill necessary and desirable, and says that instead of inflicting pain dehorning would have the opposite effect. It is surprising that anyone would make such a statement, as thousands of cattle go right through life without even a scratch from the horn, but if the proposed Bill reaches the statute book and the law is carried out all -horned cattle, unless entered in the herd book will have to suffer the pain of dehorning. As a mater of fact, the pain they suffer through horning one another is not so great after all, as nature has provided cattle with a skin . tough enough to resist being punctured with the horni Generally it merely, makes a scratch on the surface, which is not serious. Perhaps the S.P.C.A. will have something to say on this subject.

“I was very much amused to read ‘Farmer's Wife’s’ letter on Garden Plots in ‘The Dominion,’ ” writes “N. Garden,’ who adds: —“What advantage would she get by downing tools, milk-buckets, etc. ! She can't get a job on relief? What advantage is there in growing vegetables when you can get any quantity for next to nothing in the markets —in fact cabbage and lettuce are being ploughed in for manure in the Hutt Valley because the grow’ers cannot get a sale for the crops. As for starting work at 4 a.m. and finishing at dark, that is all very well. I used to tell the same tale myself once, but ‘Farmers’s Wife’ doesn’t say what she does during that 17 hours. She states that she can’t afford to buy a hoe. I would advise her to slip up the street where she could get a first-class hoe for 9d. that will work her garden for a lifetime, and she could keep the ‘old knife as a memento of the depression. I trust ‘Farmer’s Wife’ will think next time before she writes in this strain and get herself out of the rut that she is so deep in.