DEHORNING OF CATTLE

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18796, 18 November 1932, Page 12

DEHORNING OF CATTLE

COMPULSION FAVOURED. BUT DIFFICULTIES STRESBED. General satisfaction at the Introduction of a Bill in Parliament proposing to make compulsory the dehorning of cattle was expressed by those Interested In the question, though there was some difference of opinion on the proposal to exempt pedigree cattle, says the Chrlstohurch Sun. The difficulty of carrying out the dehorning of station cattle was also commented on by one back-country farmer who grazes several hundred head of cattle. “I am very much in favour of It, and I don’t think the Bill will meet with the opposition that Is anticipated,” said the station owner. “It Is however, going to Involve men like myself In a certain amount of expense and trouble to dehorn our calves. With our cattle running all over the hills and gullies, it is going to cost something to muster them, and then we will not be. able to use the caustic soda treatment on the calves, as we will never see them until branding and marking time, and by then the horns will have developed far beyond the stage where the caustic will be of any use.” His experience with dehorned and polled cattle in the rough country, too, was that when anything strange occurred, they usually hid themselves in the bush or scrub, and added considerably to the mustering difficulties. He was emphatic that pedigree cattle should be exempted. “The. horns come into the breeding character very materially,” he said. Cruolty and Economlo Loss. For many years, the Canterbury Master Butchers’ Association, and other similar associations in New Zealand, together with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty; to Animals, have been- actively advocating compulsory and universal dehorning, their main arguments being based on cruelty and economic loss. In deputations-- to various- Cabinet Ministers on the subject, they have pointed out that thousands of pounds worth of damage is done to hides and carcases by horned cattle, and that extreme pain has been caused to the animals themselves. In addition, they have stressed very strongly the human factor, pointing out that many lives have been lost through persons being attacked by horned beasts. '-’I am very pleased indeed to see that the Government has at least done something abont it,” remarked one Christchurch butcher. “One has no need to go farther than Addington Yards on a Wednesday to see how cruel a pair of horns may be. Time and time again the bodies of the animals are ripped and gashed in a vicious fashion, often by half-wild hill cattle that become panicky In the pens. Often, too, one sees a horn smashed completelv off through the frantic efforts of a beast fighting for room or trying to break out of the pen. “In railway trucks it is the same. Only a week or so ago, a couple of dairy cows were railed a short distance from -Addington, and when the owner went to untruck them he found one of them down on the floor of the truck dead, and the other one considerably knocked about. That sort of thing would never happen with polled cattle. Incitement To Trouble. “Horns only Incite a beast to become troublesome and vicious, and the use for which Nature originally intended them—protection—is not required In New Zealand. You will rarely see polled cattle fighting, and it is well known that-In a dairy herd the hornless animals are always the most contented.*” He added that he did not see any reason who pedigree cattle should be exempted. “There is a lot of talk about horns- being necessary In the show ring, but in the judging a pair of horns Is worth only one or two points. There should be no exemptions whatever, and In time there would develop in this country breeds of natur-ally-polled cattle.”