I get queasy just looking at this thing, having participated in a cow dehorning as a kid. Sheer brutality, the handles looked too short for the full body strain required by the operator to cut off the horn, and a ebay search produced this one with handles, which to me still would not be adequate for the force required. There must be a better way.
5 comments:
The handles look like some enterprising junk shop owner saw a way to part out a ruined kitchen chair.
I've seen these often before but never noticed the progressive gearing aspect (note the tapered center gear rack). Pretty ingenious, I think.
As for brutality, this is meant to cut off existing horns so they aren't long enough to cause damage. I've never done this but I would assume it's akin to trimming fingernails. When I was young we would dehorn calves with a small handheld tool that would cut into the skin and pry out the tiny horn root before it started growing. THAT was brutal. (My apologies to any readers having lunch right now.)
My mother dehorned her goats with a soldering type tool, fit around the horn and burned the horn connecting tissue off to the skull. Also brutal. But 2 minutes later they were bouncing around like normal.
A double load of tranquilizer and a hack saw.
1 load for the animal and 1 for you.
Seen it done that way too, no tranquilizers. Ugh.
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