MANAGING VICIOUS BULLS.

Waipa Post, Volume III, Issue 100, 9 April 1912, Page 4

MANAGING VICIOUS BULLS.

VALUE OF BLINDFOLDING

Many an extra good sire has j decreased his value, and not infrequently has called tenders for a bullet, by reason of his bad temper and the fact that he was almost unmanageable. A Canadian writer remarks in this connection that the safest _ and simplest means of handling a vicious bull is to blindfold him. He may be managed by means c>f ropes and pulleys, giving him room to move out of his stall when required and bringing him back to his place, but it is a cumbersome method. Blindfolding quietly takes all the conceit out of a blusterer. A broad bandage of double sacking securely fastened over his eyes may serve the purpose ordinarily in the stable. This device may be used to good advantage in handling a nervous or excitable beast when being led to market, or drawn in a wagon to be shipped on a train. I remember, says the writer, a case of a heifer received on the train being so wildly excited that she would jump at a person approaching her to untie her halter, but by throwing a blanket over her head and afterwards tying a sack over her eyes she was quietly unloaded and tied behind a wagon, which she followed as meekly as one could desire. Mismanagement or lack of thought makes a great deal of trouble in the handling of stock. Often we see men chasing pigs all over the place in the vain effort to get them into a pen, the animals always going in the direction contrary to the one they are desired to go, while by having a pair of low light hurdles hinged together forming a V-shaped guide, the animals can be handled quickly and with the use of no unseemly words. Vicious bulls are generally made so by unwise treatment when young, giving them too much liberty or using them cruelly. It is well to use them kindly, but they should be trusted no more than is necessary, for it sometimes happens that a bull that has been quiet suddenly and unexpectedly becomes vicious and maims a man for life or gores him to death. It is the part of wisdom to handle a bull with a strong staff and a safe connection with his nose-ring, no matter how quiet he may be.