# Why aren't sheep bothered by having their testicles ripped out? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117 "2008-10-29T17:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SharkB8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/41 "2008-10-30T12:09:41Z")
> [@picker](#): > > Yea, it probably hurt pretty baa-d. > > If I were (a) ewe, I’d go on the lamb for shear. Okay…I laughed WAYYYY too hard at this. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/42 "2008-10-30T12:18:35Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I have actually done this, although to goats rather than sheep. I went to an agricultural boarding school in Australia, and we castrated some goats in this way. It was not an especially pleasant experience. And i don’t think the goat enjoyed it either. So, Aussie goats have testicles ? Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/43 "2008-10-30T12:28:45Z")
It’s actually a big relief, because their balls constantly itch from contact with wool. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/44 "2008-10-30T12:30:56Z")
> [@CaerieD](#): > > I’ve had cats yowling like they’re dying over having their tails stepped on. I can’t even imagine how they’d react if I was going to chop off their testicles without anesthetic! I spent a week or so of work experience working with a vet doing small animal work. Apparently, back in the old days when he started, the routine for farmhouse cat castrations was: [ul][li]Grab cat and old gumboot[_]shove cat’s head, legs and body into gumboot so just it’s ass is poking out of the top[_]Slash nutsack open with scalpel[_]Tear The Boys out[_]dust incision with sulfa powder[\*]Pull cat out of gumboot and release it to have a prolonged sulk somewhere[/li][/ul] Nowadays they use a jab of local anasthetic as a substitute for the gumboot, and usually apply a stitch or two along with the antiseptic. But apparently the reaction to the old treatment was along the lines of “ **WTF** **OUCH**!!! That smarted. And what’s with the boot? That’s undignified. You humans suck. Thank og, the loon with the boot and knife has gone. Where’s my dinner? I’ll love you forever if you give me some more tuna.” ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/45 "2008-10-30T12:31:23Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Not a single reference to you-know-what. > > I’m so proud of you guys. Treadmills? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/46 "2008-10-30T12:33:48Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > They obviously feel pain. The people castrating them just don’t particularly care. QFT! I’ve been dying to use that. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/47 "2008-10-30T13:39:40Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > And here I thought this thread was going to be about middle class McCain supporters. ROTFLMAO. And don’t do that again, it’s against the rules.😃 ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/48 "2008-10-30T14:29:07Z")
Related (horrifying) video: the Henderson Equine Castrating Device. [http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration\_Inst.wmv-link.wmv](http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration_Inst.wmv-link.wmv) (link goes straight to a commercial/demo video). Basically, it’s a drill-bit attachment that grabs the testicles, then spins them in order to tear them off. Apparently, it’s not only quicker, but less painful/results in less bleeding. Of course, it’s also terrifying to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/49 "2008-10-30T15:03:19Z")
> [@davekhps](#): > > Related (horrifying) video: the Henderson Equine Castrating Device. > > [http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration\_Inst.wmv-link.wmv](http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration_Inst.wmv-link.wmv) > > (link goes straight to a commercial/demo video). > > Basically, it’s a drill-bit attachment that grabs the testicles, then spins them in order to tear them off. Apparently, it’s not only quicker, but less painful/results in less bleeding. > > Of course, it’s also terrifying to watch. :eek: :eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/50 "2008-10-30T16:15:30Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > So, Aussie goats have testicles ? Weird. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/51 "2008-10-30T16:22:14Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Not a single reference to you-know-what. > > I’m so proud of you guys. It’s been getting better, but the joke isn’t quite dead yet. Post #30. You’re probably confused because it wasn’t **Annie X-Mas** this time. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/52 "2008-10-30T16:33:10Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > So, Aussie goats have testicles ? Weird. How else do you think they reproduce? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/53 "2008-10-30T16:33:48Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > My (own) experience is that the berries are also a little more sensitive to crushing injuries than anything else. So we should bite with our incisors instead of our molars? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/54 "2008-10-30T16:53:03Z")
> [@davekhps](#): > > Related (horrifying) video: the Henderson Equine Castrating Device. > > [http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration\_Inst.wmv-link.wmv](http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration_Inst.wmv-link.wmv) > > (link goes straight to a commercial/demo video). > > Basically, it’s a drill-bit attachment that grabs the testicles, then spins them in order to tear them off. Apparently, it’s not only quicker, but less painful/results in less bleeding. > > Of course, it’s also terrifying to watch. That’s unbelievably hard to watch without squirming. Man, I’ll never view rotating sides of meat the same way again. ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/55 "2008-10-30T17:20:06Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Renowned animal behaviorist Temple Grandin has a theory that most animals react to pain differently than humans do. Humans are greatly incapacitated by pain; even a small amount of sharp pain makes it very difficult for a person to behave normally, without wincing and shying away from the source of the pain. Large amounts of pain can be completely debilitating and make normal behavior absolutely impossible. An injury to the testicles, for example, could have even a tough man writhing on the ground. > > Fear, by contrast, is far more debilitating to animals (especially prey animals), and far less debilitating to humans. Even in the face of terror, most people can grit their teeth and make some successful attempt to act normally. There is evolutionary pressure on humans to be capable of hiding fear, which is why we can do so. Prey animals are subject to a very strong evolutionary pressure not to show pain or to act in a way that reveals injury, and even animals that we can tell are feeling great pain are not usually incapacitated by it and will avoid reacting visibly to pain in the presence of an animal that could be a predator (like a human). But the same animals are easily incapacitated by fear–look at the tendency of horses or cattle to stampede. Jared Diamond argued in _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ that many animals simply cannot be domesticated because they panic too easily and cannot be kept in any sort of enclosure without panicking. An animal that will shrug off having important organs chopped off without anesthetic will literally worry itself to death if it is kept confined when it smells a predator. I was composing a post trying to explain this exact idea, but you got it much more cleanly. 🙂 As for dogs and cats being more drama-queenish: Overall, I’d say they aren’t. Livestock are decidedly more stoic than dogs and cats, but I’ve seen carnivores sustain fairly horrific injures with narry a complaint. Broken bones, big exploded abcesses, pregnancies where the baby died so long ago it’s turning to rotted mush and taking the uterus with it. All the kinds of things that would dissolve a human into screaming piles of goo. Animals are tough, but they feel it. They just hide it better. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/56 "2008-10-30T17:42:37Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I had quite a lot of friends who came off sheep farms in Australia, and this mode of castration was very uncommon. All the sheep farmers i knew used elastration rings, arguing that it was easier, less bloody, and more humane. When I was a young boy, I witnessed my farmer uncle use a grip lock clamp device on a bull calf in order to cut off the blood supply for several minutes. I thought it was brutal but reading about this… ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/57 "2008-10-30T17:56:36Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > When I was a young boy, I witnessed my farmer uncle use a grip lock clamp device on a bull calf in order to cut off the blood supply for several minutes. I thought it was brutal but reading about this… The professional name for those is “Emasculators.” Food Animal medicine is horrific and fun! ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/58 "2008-10-30T19:07:41Z")
The lambs showed far less reaction to the cutting than the goats I have been a party to band castrating. Basically a really thick rubber band with an inside diameter of less than half an inch is spread (mechanically with specialized pliers) and placed over the testicles onto the narrow connection between scrotum and stomach then released. It cuts off the blood flow and the organs wither, dry up, and fall off. The kids were visibly in pain for a few minutes after you snapped the band into place, probably until numbness sets in. I’ve also had a vet tell me that when “cutting” during castration you never wanted to make a straight cut across the connective tissues, that leads to infection. Pulling them or scraping those connections is the preferred method. No idea why that would be. -rainy ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/59 "2008-10-30T22:04:12Z")
> [@Pullet](#): > > I was composing a post trying to explain this exact idea, but you got it much more cleanly. 🙂 > > As for dogs and cats being more drama-queenish: Overall, I’d say they aren’t. Livestock are decidedly more stoic than dogs and cats, but I’ve seen carnivores sustain fairly horrific injures with narry a complaint. Broken bones, **big exploded abcesses** , pregnancies where the baby died so long ago it’s turning to rotted mush and taking the uterus with it. All the kinds of things that would dissolve a human into screaming piles of goo. As a human who has had a couple abcesses (both related in threads on this forum, as a matter of fact) I can testify that it’s the time period BEFORE they “explode” that hurts like a mother. Once they pop you feel MUCH better. ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117/60 "2008-10-30T22:42:37Z")
> [@davekhps](#): > > Related (horrifying) video: the Henderson Equine Castrating Device. > > [http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration\_Inst.wmv-link.wmv](http://stonemfg.net/images/Henderson-Castration_Inst.wmv-link.wmv) > > (link goes straight to a commercial/demo video). > > Basically, it’s a drill-bit attachment that grabs the testicles, then spins them in order to tear them off. Apparently, it’s not only quicker, but less painful/results in less bleeding. > > Of course, it’s also terrifying to watch. Dear sweet and fuzzy lord… I second the “horrifying” and raise you a “never going to look at a power drill the same way”. (That’ll make watching This Old House interesting for a while…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-sheep-bothered-by-having-their-testicles-ripped-out/470117.md?page=4)