What are mutilations?
Mutilations are all forms of physical injuries done to the living body, which degrades the appearance or functions, and which have no healing purpose.
In livestock farming, animals are most often subjected to mutilations because it decreases injuries to each other .
Are mutilations allowed in organic agriculture?
Mutilations are generally not allowed in organic animal farming.
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This means that animals should be intact, and their integrity should be kept.
The IFOAM basic standards give the following recommendations:
- Farmers should select species and breeds that do not require mutilations
- Exceptions for mutilations should only be made when suffering can be kept to a minimum
- Surgical treatments should only be used for reasons of safety, mitigation of suffering and the health and welfare of the livestock.
The first recommendation stresses that injuries among animals should be prevented by selecting animals with minimum risks. For example, some sheep have loose and folded skin, hence high risk of attacks from flies and maggot infestation. These sheep are subjected to a practice where their skin is cut so that it is less folded – this is called ‘mulesing’. This should be avoided in organic farming.
- Castration
- Tail docking of lambs
- Dehorning
- Ringing
In research and practice, solutions are constantly searched for to avoid mutilations, including the above mentioned.
How can we judge whether a mutilation is severe or less severe?
A mutilation is always severe, because of the physical injuries it inflicts on the animals. But some are very severe, because they have long lasting impact on the animal. Guiding Questions
- Is the animal welfare or integrity affected permanently?
If the answer yes, then it is a severe mutilation. Castrations fall into this category.
Beak trimming of poultry can lead to permanent pain when pecking for feed on the ground, and are as such a severe mutilation, because searching for feed is a profound part of poultry’s normal behavior.
Dehorning or disbudding of cattle can change the power relations in a herd of cows, but they still form a hierarchy, so this is not regarded as very severe by some people , but by others as severe because it changes the cow’s ‘zone of tolerance’, that is, the zone which she will accept others before a confrontation. This makes it possible for humans to keep more cows in smaller space.
- Is the mutilation necessary for animal related purposes? Does the animal profit from it?
A caesarian can be regarded as a mutilation which the animal benefits from. If it is necessary for the survival of its offspring. Most caesarians are result of a ‘normal animal’ having difficulties in giving birth in a case. There are some breeds which are very likely to require a caesarian when giving birth; they should be avoided in organic farming because it is fair to avoid mutilations when something can be prevented through the choice of breed or farming system. We always have to ask ourselves whether the mutilation can be avoided by removing any underlying cause?
- Is the mutilation necessary to meet some human related aims?
As stated above, most mutilations are regarded as ‘necessary’ for human use purposes. The question is whether we can avoid those mutilations by meeting the needs of animals? One example is in pigs. Pigs will attack each other if they are frustrated and are not sufficiently stimulated, and e.g. bite in each other’s tails. This could be prevented by giving them conditions that minimize such triggers for example space and opportunities to root in some material.
But, some farmers solve this vice it by cutting the tail in a young age.
- What will happen if the mutilation is not done? Which alternatives do we have?
For example, if avoiding castration, the consequence could be that male animals cannot be kept in a group without constantly fighting, or mating with their close relatives among the females. Alternative housing conditions. can be considered. But when it is ‘normal practice’, a complete change of farm design can be considered.
What is accepted by society?
This is really not a criteria for accepting or rejecting a mutilation. It is here to provoke our thought process on what is perceived as “normal” by the society and compare it with the above criteria.
Different types of mutilations
Below a list of different types of mutilations, most of which are prohibited in organic farming. Alternatives are discussed.
- Beak trimming
- Beak trimming (sometimes referred to as beak treatment) is a mutilation that involves removal of e part of the upper and lower beak . Beak trimming is applied to avoid excessive pecking behavior. Pecking is a natural poultry behavior
- In commercial poultry keeping; beat trimming it can result in feather pecking and cannibalism, which cause lot of damage/pain to a bird and can lead to high mortality. Not only laying hens and layer and broiler parents are beak trimmed but also turkeys (the upper beak). The trimming is normally done using a hot blade or with infrared device. Beak trimming is done on poultry that are young as one day up to 5 weeks of age.
- This cause pain and stress and has a long term influences the behavior
- Bea severely affects the anatomy of the animals and should not be used in organic farming.
- Castration
- Castration is the removal of testicles from male animals (stallions, boars, bucks, rams). It is done to reduce inbreeding and to improve fat distribution in beef animals.
- In pigs it is done to preventboar taint. In Stallions it is done to to enable easier handling
- Castration is painful and causes stress and influences the behavior severely, because castrated males cannot show sexual behavior. The least painful method is recommended in organic production systems.
- Castration is commonly practiced in organic farming, but research is ongoing to find alternatives because it severely affects the animal’s sexual behavior.
- Despurring
- Despurring is stopping the growth of the spurs of cockerels immediately after hatching by pushing the spurs against a hot iron. The process of despurring causes pain and stress.
- Despurring is done to avoid injuries during mating. Despurring is not explicitly mentioned as accepted in the IFOAM norms.
- Dubbing
- Dubbing is the cutting part of the combs of cockerels with a small scissor to prevent combs from growing.
- When cockerels have too large combs there vision is limited resulting in lower fertility. This is unacceptable in organic farming, and can be solved by choosing the right breeds.
- Disbudding.
- Disbudding is the destruction of horn forming cells in cattle, goats and sheep at a young age. It is done using a hot iron or caustic powder placed on the horn bud to stop it from growing.
- In some countries disbudding is allowed in organic farming. A local anesthetic must be used to prevent suffering.
- Dehorning
- Dehorning is that removal of horns from cattle, goat and sheep at an older age by cutting or sawing them. It can be allowed inorganic animal husbandry only if animal suffering is minimized and anesthetics are used.
- Mulesing
- Mulesing is the removal of part of the skin of the hind part of sheep to prevent it from having parasites and maggots under the skin. It is completely forbidden in organicfaerming.
- Breeds which are prone to this should be avoided in organic farming.
- Nose ringing. Nose ringing is done to have better control over bulls and boars but also to prevent animals from cross suckling. In some places it is forbidden to transport bulls unless they are nose ringed. It is painful when applied and it changes behavior. E.g. some nose ringed sows will graze instead of rooting.
- It can be allowed in organic farming only if animal suffering is minimized and anesthetics are used.
- Pinioning
- One or both wings are sometimes cut to prevent poultry from flying. This can be a very painful practice and should be avoided if it involves touching nerves, or causing bleeding. It can sometimes be done by just cutting tips or parts of the feathers, without bleeding.
- Removal of extra teats
- Is the surgical removal of extra teats. This should be done at 2 to 3 weeks of age.
- Tail docking
- Tail docking is amputating (part of) the tail of in sheep and pigs, and dogs .
- It is done to avoid parasite attack in sheep, cannibalism in pigs and for “beauty”in dogd
- It is painful and stressful experience and it influences behavior . In organic lambs it is allowed when animal suffering is minimized and anesthetics are used. In all other cases it is forbidden.
- Toe clipping
- This refers to clipping of toes of breeder cockerels. It is normally done using a hot blade or wire immediately after hatching.
- It is painful and causes stress and it could causes pain. The mutilation is done to prevent injuries to the hens during mating.
Mutilations for identification and record keeping
- Brand marking for identification
- For record keeping, it is practical to mark animals just after birth. As discussed in the section of record keeping identification can be done by having certain characteristics, such as color patterns or hair whorls registered.
- Colored number or stripe on the skin,- is mostly temporary and has to be repeated. Collars or bands around the feet can fall off. For these reasons, permanent identification methods are used. Ear tagging, tattooing and branding can be used.
- Ear Clipping
- It is common practice for donkey owners, particular in rural areas and where donkeys live in large herds, to mark their animals.
- This is often done by cutting patterns in their ears or the whole ear.
- This method of brand marking should be avoided.
- Ear notching
- Ear notching is putting a mark in the ear of animals with a pin through a hole in the ear.
- Freeze branding
- Freeze branding is marking animals on the skin with an iron, cooled down in fluent nitrogen (-85oC). It causes stress while performed and pain because the pigment in the skin is destroyed. It recovers after a few days and does not cause pain for long
- Hot branding
- Hot branding is putting a number or other mark with a hot iron on the skin of animals.
- It is is extremely painful, but it does not cause chronic pain.
- Tattooing. Tattooing is making a wound where ink is applied, into animals skin of the ears, lips or tongue to create a pattern.