DOMESTIC ANIMALS 107 



run about do not need to trim their hoofs, because they grow 

 exactly as fast as they wear away. On the back of the foot 

 are two small toes, which do not touch the ground when the 

 animal walks 011 a hard surface, but they are of use in 

 getting over swamps and bogs. I think you can see now 

 that an ox would soon have sore feet if he had to walk on 

 four bare toes, like a cat. Why must the hoofs of cattle 

 be trimmed if the animals are entirely stable-fed ? 



Weapons of self-defence. If you make a dog angry, he 

 will try to bite you. The teeth with which he tears and 

 crushes his food are also his weapons of defence and attack. 

 Cattle use their teeth only to masticate their food. When 

 a cow defends herself or her calf against a dog, or fights 

 with other cattle, she uses her horns, and every dog knows 

 that they are formidable weapons and avoids them care- 

 fully. Most bulls become vicious when they are about four 

 years old. Many a farmer has been gored and trampled to 

 death by his own bull. This shows that the males of our 

 cattle still retain a good deal of their wild fury, although 

 the species were domesticated thousands of years ago. Do 

 you think horns are of any use to domestic cattle and their 

 owners ? Are they not a nuisance ? Why do some farmers 

 dehorn their cattle ? The horn itself is hollow, but it fits 

 tightly over a bony core, which contains many blood-vessels. 

 Does it hurt the cow to cut the tips of her horns, if you 

 do not touch the core ? Do you think dehorning cattle is 

 cruel ? It causes them considerable pain. Some domestic 

 cattle have no horns. 



All wild cattle, sheep, and antelopes have horns, which 

 they need very much to defend themselves and their young 

 against beasts of prey; but they also use their feet for this 

 purpose. Ruminants of the deer family bear branched 

 antlers, which on our noble elk and moose reach an enor- 

 mous size, attaining a weight of from fifty to eighty pounds. 



