CHAPTER XVIII 



DEHORNING, SPAYING, AND CASTRATING 

 CATTLE 



Properly speaking, dehorning means removing the 

 horns, but the term has also come to be applied to pre- 

 venting their growth in animals naturally horned. Among 

 domestic animals, it is chiefly practiced on cattle. 

 Spaying means removing the ovaries from a female 

 animal. The ovaries are the organs or glands of the 

 female that give rise to the ova or essential products 

 of generation. Castration is usually understood to mean 

 the removal of the sexual germ-bearing glands of the 

 male; that is, the removal of the testicles, but, in some 

 instances, it is also used as meaning the removal of the 

 essential organs of generation from both male and 

 female. In this chapter, these are discussed in the order 

 named, and in the discussion the respective objects 

 sought are stated. The discussion considers the fol- 

 lowing: (i) Dehorning of recent introduction; (2) 

 Why cattle are dehorned ; (3) When cattle should be de- 

 horned; (4) When cattle should not be dehorned; (5) 

 Facts which bear upon dehorning; (6) Methods of de- 

 horning; (7) Facts regarding spaying cattle; (8) 

 Females that should be spayed; (9) Methods of spay- 

 ing; (10) Facts regarding castrating cattle ; (11) Males 

 that should be castrated; and (12) Methods of castrat- 

 ing. 



Dehorning of recent introduction. — Horns were 

 doubtless given to cattle as weapons of defense. In 

 primeval days they were probably a necessity. In the 

 absence of such weapons the hazard of extinction would 

 have been more or less continually present with the 



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