SOME NOTES ON DEHORNING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2207, 18 June 1896, Page 5

SOME NOTES ON DEHORNING.

Br a Station Shepherd. I notice that the question of dehorning is exercising v the minds of some of the humane city folks just now, and I can imagine I see them shudder when they are dilating on what they will doubtless describe as the cruel mutilation of God's creatures. That there is a certain amount of pain inflicted no one will attempt to deny, but, as one of your correspondents pointed oat a few weeks ago, there are many other necessary operations performed on our domestic animals which are equally as painful as, if nob more so, than dehorning. It is now nigb. on a quarter of a century ago since I first saw this operation performed, and since that time 1 have seen and helped to dehorn some thousands ; yet I have never known a single animal to die from the effects of the operation. Of the ultimate advantage it is to the cattle there can, I think, be no two opinions, and. if some of the humane folks who are crying oat | jast had a few voyages in charge of a mob of horned cattle on board some of the steamers which, land catt!e from Ireland and tha Con- ! tineat into English and Scotch markets it \ would be a verj effectual method of convincing

them of the necessity of the operation. Or, to come nearer home, let them take their stand at a railway station convenient to saleyards on. a sale day, and see a few trucks disloaded of their gored and bleeding freight, and their ideas about the cruelty of dehorning might receive a rude shock.

I noticed in your columns a few weeks ago a V.S. speaking against the use of the saw in dehorning, and just about the same time I read in a Home paper the report of a discussion on the subject at a meeting of the veterinary profession, where some men of high standing spoke in favour of a fine saw in preference to any other .instrument yet invented. For my own part I would vote in favour of the saw as being less painful. Look, for instance, at the amputation of human limbs — what are thoy taken off with ? I cannot speak from experience on this point, bat I am inclined to think that a saw is used. But in the dreamy, far-distant future when I turn squatter I do not intend to have any necessity to use either a saw or any other instrument to deprive my bovines of their weapons of defence and effence — I will make Nature do that for me, or, in other words, I will breed " doddtes " — not necessarily pura, as a high-grade crossbred will invariably leave as much to pay the tax-gatherer as the purebred animal. Use purebred bulls of course— polled Angus or G»lloway~on shorthorn, Ayrshire, or crossbred oow«, and the chance? are that 90 per oent. of thfi calves will be polled. Or cross the other way by using a shorthorn bull on polled cows, and still you will see. the prepptency of the doddies showing, as a very large percentage of the calves will not only be polled, but also black, or'if the shorthorn sire be white the offspring will ba blue greys, and these are the gems whioh oan make all tbe purebreds stand down at such shows as Birmingham and Smithficld. As beef-producers they admittedly stand without a rival ; hence the reason of "prime Scots " always bsing the top quotation in the London market.