St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-27
POINTS IN FAVOR
OF Dehorning Cattle Gathered by
the Cincinnati Gazette.

y,
In all ages there have been tendencies
to zeal without knowledge. The Hu4
man Society of Illinoi attacked Mr..
Haaf for dehorning his cattle, and teachr
ing others how to dehorn their herds !;
but their appeal to the courts
gave opportunity for bringing out the
fullest information on the subject, and
the public was enlightened as to the
process, and its advantages so far OUT
weighed the temporary discomfort of
the dehOrned beast that the courts
failed to sustain the society.
In the case of our reader who suffered
fine, he simply proved that he was a
humane and Christian husband and
father. in that he would protect his
wife and children from the cruel horns
of his COW.
1t is simply a question whether the
COW or his wife and children should suf
fer. He very wisely concluded the cow
should be disarmed and compelled to
keep the peace. By causing her to suf-
fer during a few moments, he made it
impossible for her to injure her kind or
to cripple or kill his wife or. child.
From the nature of this COW, and of
many cows. armed with horns and vici-
GUS in her tendency. she is constantly
liable to do injury. There is not week
that passes but we read of some one in
jured by the cruel horns of some vicious
OF enraged bovine.
We muZzle dogs by the week and
month, greatly to their discomfort and
curtailment of their liberties, but the
safety of the citizen is of so much
higher consideration that the dog has to
suffer. We find that the males among
horses, cattle, sheep and swine are
made more dOcile and profitable by
castration, and though it is far more
painful than dehOrning, yet the public
good and safety, comfort and profit of
the huSbandman demand that the opera
ton be performed.
In some of the Western and North
western states, where cattle-feeding and
dairying are the leading inter ests, de-
horning promises to become as essential
to successful and safe handling of cattle
as is castratiOn.
Like reasons may be urged for and
against both operations. We contend
that horns are not only unnecessary,
present mode of keeping cattle in barns
and small Enclosures.
When cattle had wide range, and
they needed horns to protect them
selves and their young against the at
tacks of wild beasts, horns were ne
cessity, we may infer, since wild cat
tie have all been provided with horns.
Man, however, as he and his animals
became more civilized and found both
were more comfortable under shell
ter of a roof, saw the advantages
of hornIess beasts over the horned ones;
and, by taking advantage of the laws of
breeding has. from the sports of nature,
successfully established breeds of cattle
which are hornless. Enough of these
have been bred and used to show the
uselessness of horns on domeSticated
cattle. u
More: The profit and comfort and
safety to life and limb have been found
to be so much greater with the hOrnless
cattle that the ingenuity and skill of
horned hornless and harmless with lit
tie loss of time or blood, and vast
saving of pain to man and beast. ~
1t is not to be expected that those who
dwell in cities and have nothing to do
with cattle but to admire them as they
quietly Craze on the beautiful meadows
or chew the cud of contentment i'm the
cool shade, can appreciate the claims of
the dehorner, who would convert them
all into the harmless creatures the un..
initiated imagine them to be already. .
Here are some of the reasons which,
will be appreciated by the husbandmalf.
whose profits are small and whose cons
fort and family are dear to him.
Without horns all cattle are more
docile: and even the vicious become
gentle and manageable. Without horns,
human life is safer, and the cattle of
the herd are happier, and none are ter
rorized by the boss that delights in cru
city. Bosses will cease to fret the weaker
ones, to hook and horn them, from pure
meanness. There will then be no bull
les in the herd, and there is no meaner
thing than bully; nothing that de-
lights SO much in brutality and discOm-.
fort of the weaker-l suspect the word
originated from the word bull-one that
is mean because he can be so easily.
Packers, shippers and leather deal
ers can afford to pay more for the cattle
and hides which have never been gored
OF pierced.
The butcher often loses part of car
cass of steer that has been gOred or
bruised by horns in the car or stock
yard. We have known of whole quar-
tiers that had become fevered, unfit for