SECURING OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



61 



Fig. 56.— Steer Placed in Stock. 



The use of stocks for the control of bovines is often also re- 

 quired. These are used principally in shoeing oxen, but are 

 available for some operations which require greater passiveness 

 than can be obtained by the applications of the simpler means 

 above described. It is only in exceptional cases, and when an 

 operation is likely to be unusually painful and prolonged, that the 

 recumbent position is required with bovines. 



The casting of cattle may be effected with or without hobbles, 

 but in either case special care is necessary to provide a sufficiently 

 thick bed to protect the head, and guard against the possible 

 danger of fracturing the horns. A long board placed transversely 

 across the neck, with an assistant seated on each end, affords an 

 excellent means of controlling his efforts and struggles. "When 

 hobbles are used, they must be of smaller size than those used for 

 horses, and should be placed above the fetlocks. 



To cast bovines without hobbles, either of two methods, one 

 invented by Eueff of Germany, and another described by Gwell 

 and Hertwig, will answer the purpose. In the first, the Kueff 

 raethod, a rope some thirty-six feet long is required, in the middle of 

 which a loop is made and fixed round the base of the horns. The 

 two free ends are then passed between the fore and the hind legs, 

 each beiag twisted from within outwards, around one of the 

 coronets, and brought back to the loop at the base of the horns, 

 through which they are passed to assistants, one on each side, 

 with directions to pull backwards. The feet are thus brought 

 close together, and the animal seats himself on his hind quarters. 



