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who secures position of " lord and master " in a herd, as it is a 

 matter of common knowledge that the " cush " (as a polled cow 

 is called in the midland counties of England) is the terror of her 

 companions, as although she cannot inflict actual wounds, she 

 can deal severe blows. Allowing that in a lot of recently pur- 

 chased animals there are one or several individuals of unusually- 

 pugnacious proclivities, and that there were no other means 

 available for depriving them of the power of injuring their com- 

 panions than dehorning, that fact would not justify the indis- 

 criminate adoption of the operation — the punishment, in other 

 words, of the innocent equally with the guilty. 



It is the indefensible adoption of the latter course that, in my 

 opinion, renders it necessary that steps should be taken to put 

 a stop to painful and, I maintain, cruel practice. 



Dehorning is defended by many people on the plea that it is 

 no more painful than are such operations as castration and 

 docking, but this is, in itself, a bad plea, and need not be dis- 

 cussed in this place further than to say that an entire revolution 

 in the internal management of our flocks and herds would be 

 required if castration were abolished, and that we should not 

 remove both testicles if the excision of one or a part of one 

 would suffice,. nor are we in the habit of castrating or docking 

 every animal in a lot because one has proved himself obstreper- 

 ous and unmanageable, or because another has got us into 

 difficulties. 



Another argument used in favor of dehorning is, that animals 

 deprived of their horns thrive more rapidly and command a 

 higher price in the market when fat than do those which have 

 not been so mutilated. Given a number of animals that have 

 been disturbed and worried by one or more restless companions, 

 and the operation of dehorning is practiced, it requires no stretch 

 of the imagination to enable the most ignorant to see that 

 with the cessation of the worrying process and the insuring of 

 quietude, the deposition of fat (growth) will be favored; but 

 again I say the same end can be gained by other and less ob- 

 jectionable methods, and to assert that the mere removal of the 



