DISHORNING CATTLE.

Patea Mail, 15 September 1882, Page 4

DISHORNING CATTLE.

The practice of dishorning young cattle is warmly advocated by the Rural Neio Yorker , and it is evident that these worse than useless appendages on domestic cattle are likely to disappear, in one way or another, from United States cattle. The journal alluded to says :—“ Some remarks have been made as to the cruelty of dishorning young calves. If our humanity is not shocked at the more painful operation of castration, wo may with perfect composure submit a young calf at the tender age when the first button of the horns appears, to the operation of dishorning, which is done as follows : The button of the horn, yet soft, is shaved off with a sharp knife close to the roots of the hair, and the wound, which scarcely bleeds, is instant!}’ touched with a very hot iron. Calves subjected to the operation of dishorning in the manner above mentioned certainly exhibit no such signs of distress as a young lamb does when its tail is docked and cauterised, and surely the purpose of this latter is not nearly so requisite or useful a one as removing the horns from an animal. If the absence of horns is more desirable than the absence of the long tails of sheep, then it is mere folly and foolishness to object to the almost painless operation of destroying the horns “ in the bud,” and pass without notice the painful operation of removing the major part of the young lamb’s tail, or of emasculating the animal.”