Yet most animal farming in this country does indeed rely on such mutilations. The word 'mutilations' is the technical term used by vets and scientists to describe a variety of operations. Most of these painful operations are performed without any anaesthetic.
Scientific research shows that castration inflicts severe pain on lambs.
Farmers say they castrate their lambs because once they become sexually mature, they become aggressive and breed indiscriminately. However, many lambs are slaughtered before reaching the age of sexual maturity. This makes a nonsense of farmers' stated reason for castration. In 1994 the Farm Animal Welfare Council urged farmers to stop castrating their lambs. This call has largely been ignored by sheep farmers who continue to castrate the vast majority of male lambs.