PJ Harvey Lamb Castration Stories Upset Activists
Written by Vegetarian Star on February 24th, 2011 in Animal Issues, Female Musicians, Female Singers.
PJ Harvey has angered animal activists after revealing she castrated young sheep as a child growing up on her family’s farm in Southern England.
Harvey told Mojo Magazine, “That’s what you do on a farm. You have to because you don’t want every male lamb to turn into a ram. You only want the best looking lambs: the ones you think are going to be strong, and turn into good sires.”
“The others, you have to conserve their energy to go into the meat. You don’t want them expending their energy, wanting to mate… It’s a very delicate operation: you need to hold the lamb in the right position, because it is painful for them.”
“I didn’t particularly like doing it, but if you work with animals, there are things you have to do which you don’t like doing: you follow in your mother and father’s footsteps.”
Castrating sheep sounds worse than your typical circumcision.
The procedure is described by Wild Life Information as:
“A constrictive rubber ring is applied to the neck of the scrotum using a special instrument (an elastrator), with both testes distal to the ring. Blood flow through the testes and ring is obstructed and these structures atrophy and drop off after about four to six weeks.”
According to Sheep and Goat, several researchers have confirmed that all methods of castration cause pain and distress to an animal and this has been measured through restlessness, differences in the way the animals lie or stand, abnormal standing or walking and vocalization.
Besides reducing the demand for meat, other ways investigated to eliminate the suffering of the animals include immunizing against GnRH (gonatotropin-releasing hormone) or LH (luteinizing hormone), which can reduce sexual behavior and the need for castration.
A spokesperson for PETA told WENN, “Castration with a rubber ring inflicts incredible pain on an animal, and is sadly just one of a range of mutilations that animals raised for their flesh are subjected to… If anyone abused dogs or cats in the same manner, they’d be locked up.”
Photo: PR Photos
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