23 



Ertward A. Thompson, hide inspector Toronto : " I should say that out of 50,000 hides 

 handled by my office annually the number damaged by horns would be 2,5 0, and at 50c. per 

 hide the total loss per year would be about Si 250. 



Samuel R. Wickett, tanner, Toronto : " We handle 5fl hides a day, and 1 think there is 

 fully 25 per cent, that sh"\v more or less damage from horns. I would say th*t the actual de- 

 preciation in the value of the H(J0 hides we handle every week would be ab"Ut $45 " Mr. Alfred 

 Beardmore said that he thought Mr. Wickett's estimate was about right, and that the loss was 

 a serious one to the tanners of the province. 



AMOUNT OF SUFFERING. 



With regard to the amount of suffering involved in the operation, farmers 

 and others accustomed to the care of cattle, who had either seen the operation of 

 dehorning or had performed it themselves, testified that the animals did not 

 apparently suffer much pain at the time or afterwards, that they manifested no 

 symptoms of shock, but partook of water and food immediately, and that the 

 secretion of milk was not diminished or changed for more than a day. Veterinary 

 surgeons and medical practitioners, also, who had made a study of the operation, 

 gave it as their opinion that the pain is practically over after the operation, and 

 that the discharge of matter from the head, referred to by so many witnesses, 

 was not necessarily indicative of continued suffering. On this point William 

 Brady, V. S., Tilsonburg, says: " I have seen a mucous discharge, but that is a 

 discharge that nature provides for the healing of the wound. There was no pus 

 discharge in any I have seen, but in one or two cases after the scab had formed 

 over the parts, I found, upon raising the scab, a very small quantity of pus lodged 

 underneath it. A mucous discharge is no sign of pain, even if it were running 

 down the face ; it is simply the exudation of matter that is closing up the part." 



James Clark, F.R.CV.S., Scotland : " A great deal of stress and alarm is 

 put on the fact that we have sometimes a discharge of matter from the frontal 

 sinuses. I admit that it is better to avoid this, if at all possible, and if attention 

 is paid to the comfort of animals it will be found that the percentage of these 

 cases will be very small. In every day practice the presence of matter is of little 

 consequence ; it does cause discomfort and retard the healing process, but does 

 not necessarily interfere with a good and successful recovery." 



On the other hand, a number of veterinary surgeons, some of them 

 eminent in their profes-ion, looking entirely at the anatomy of the part, have 

 asserted in positive terms that the operation must be one of excruciating pain, 

 and their evidence, given in various legal cases affecting the practice, has heen a 

 strong factor in arousing opposition. In the English trial, Prof. Waliey, Principal 

 of the Royal Dick's Veterinary College, Edinburgh, in the course of his evidence 

 said: "Inflammation must arise where the sinus has been cut through. The 

 ordinary bone cannot be said to be sensitive, for you would not feel the saw going 

 through your leg, but you would when it went through the tissues. It is the 

 sensitive tissues in the horn that, when cut through, causes the intense pain to 



