IN-GROWING HORNS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17946, 25 November 1932, Page 2

IN-GROWING HORNS

CRUELTY TO CATTLE ACTION IN GISBORNE Action is to be taken in Gisborne in regard to farmers allowing horns on their cattle to grow into the heads. A statement to this effect was made to-day by Mr., J. I). Anderson, stock inspector at Gisborne, who said lie had seen a number of cases at the Matawhoro saleyards of the horns curving round and growing right into the skull. At the cattle fair this week, the horn of one beast had penetrated i the head for a distance of about an inch, and the punctured flesh was ibleeding; It was possible for the horn *to' grow right through the skull and into the brain, and cases were known of cattle being lost from this cause. Neglect on the part of farmers to dehorn or partially dehorn such cattle amounted to cruelty, he added, and inspectors of stock had power under the Slaughtering and Inspection Act to prosecute any farmer who did not carry out the instructions of the stock inspector in the matter, and the maximum penalty for conviction on such a charge was £SO.

The bill before Parliament for compulsory dehorning would relieve trouble in the matter of in-growing horns, but in the meantime, Mr. Anderson said, he intended to take action to prevent animals suffering any unnecessary pain, and the pain to an animal with an in-growing horn mush be intense.