Kesava and Madhava Are Now Oxen

When I was a kid, my family ran a brood cow operation. We would have about 150 head of cattle in the summer. The breeding was timed so all the cows dropped their calves at the same time in early spring. Once the calves were old enough, we would round them up off the free range pasture and herd them into a well organized corral. My father, uncle, brother, two hired men, and two or three cousins would constitute the crew.

We would brand, vaccinate, and dehorn the calves,usually about 50 of them, and, if they were bulls, castrate them. I never learned that part of the operation, a minor surgery where the scrotum is sliced open, and the attachment tubes of the testicles are cut, then removed. My job was separating the calves from the cows, steers and bulls. I did this on foot in close quarters.

We would hold the herd in a large pen, then cut out 15-20 into a smaller pen. They came into the smaller pen from one side. On the other side was a gate that led into a still smaller pen. A man would be on the gate, working in concert with me. I would pin the group against one side, then, by body language and eye contact, leave an obvious escape. As I would push them tighter, eventually one would take the opening. If it was a cow, and other cows followed, I would continue letting them go until a calf started — then I would step in and cut the calf off.

If the calf got by me, the gateman would close it and cut it off until I was able to reorganize and send another cow towards him. When we got a few cows in the smaller pen, we would shut the gate, and open the far gate of that pen and let those cows into a bigger barnyard.

If a calf was the first, it was vice versa. Those we kept. The smaller pen was shaped like a triangle with a long chute on one end. When I had a few calves in that pen, I would push them into the chute and a man outside would stick a post in behind them sideways between the boards lining the chute so they couldn’t back out. Then I would go back and continue separating.

The calves would then be pushed through the chute to a head gate where the procedures were performed before being released back to the herd.

This was all up close and personal. As the consequences of a 1200 pound (500 Kg)  cow stepping on my foot were bad, I learned some fancy foot movements. It actually took some skills to do this, and, while I am sure animal rightists will be a little upset with me that I took part in this, for a young guy it was quite challenging physically and exciting. It was like marking up in a soccer game.

For Kesava and Madhava the process was quite different. First of all, no herding was necessary. Jayaprabhupada and the vet could walk right up to them, as they are gentled. Second, they were given an epidural, so the acute pain of the procedure was avoided. Third, it was a bloodless procedure, where a Burdizzo crimper was used, crushing the tubes so the testicles will atrophy, rather then be removed and discarded (thus avoiding the question, if we don’t eat meat because an animal is killed, and testicles surgically removed don’t involve killing, could we eat “Rocky Mountain Oysters”?)

Observing how easy the procedure was using the Burdizzo, I realized that I could perform it myself. I offered to do it for several devotees attending the sannyox initiation ceremony, but they must have doubted my ability to learn so fast, as they all refused. Or maybe it was because they have taken a vow of no intoxication they would have had to do it without an epidural. Yeah, that must have been it.