Some farmers, to their credit, are troubledby this painful
surgery. In an article entitled “The Castration Knife Must
Go,”C.G.Scruggs,editorofTheProgressiveFarmer,refers
tothe“extremestressofcastration”andsuggeststhatsince
leanmeatisincreasinglyindemand,maleanimalscouldbe
leftunmutilated.^128 Thesameviewhasbeenexpressedinthe
pigindustry, wherethepracticeissimilar.Accordingtoan
article in the British magazinePig Farming:
Castrationitselfisabeastlybusiness,eventothehardened
commercial pig man. I’m only surprised that the
antivivisection lobby have not made a determined attack on it.
Andsinceresearchhasnowshown awayof detectingthe
taintthatboarmeatoccasionallyhas,thearticlesuggeststhat
we “think about giving our castrating knives a rest.”^129
Branding cattle with a hot iron is widely practiced, as a
protectionagainststrayingandcattlerustlers(whostillexist
insomeparts),aswellastoassistrecord-keeping.Although
cattlehavethickerskinsthanhumans,theirskinsarenotthick
enoughtoprotectthemagainstared-hotironapplieddirectly
to theskin—the hairhavingbeen clipped away first—and
heldtherefor fiveseconds.To permitthis operation tobe
done,theanimalisthrowntothegroundandpinneddown.
Alternatively, cattle maybe heldin a contraptioncalleda
“squeezechute,”whichisanadjustablecratethatcanbefitted
tightlyaroundtheanimal.Evenso,asoneguidenotes,“the
animal will usually jump when you apply the iron.”^130
Asanadditionalmutilation,cattlearelikelytohavetheirears
cutwithasharpknifeintospecialshapessothat,outonthe
range,theycanbeidentifiedfromadistanceorwhentheyare