The New York Carriage Controversy is one of the most dramatic and inevitable outcomes of the growing schism in America between people who have pets and people who have animals.  People who view animals as pets are predominantly urban, people who view them as animals are rural and agricultural, as it is difficult to have animals in the city – look at the furor over the horses. The ideology of the animal rights movement is based on the notion that all animals needed to be treated like pets, protected from work, any possibility of accident or discomfort. This is special subject for me, as I have animals that are both pets and farm animals, and I am constantly being reminded of the great differences between the two things, even as so many of my readers find it confusing.

Maria is learning this lesson this week, she has found the past 24 hours wrenching and sometimes, in her own words, “too much.” She can speak for herself, she has begun to write about this on her blog and is thinking about it.  We’ve had several life and death dramas and lots of blood in the past 24 hours.. Socks and Pumpkin both nearly died during a difficult birth, Liam bled all over the barn when I docked his tail with my shiny new heated tail docker, and cut a vessel. This morning, he was stomped and bitten by Simon in the pasture and bloodied.

I was going to wait to dock Pumpkin’s tail until Maria had left for Alabama tomorrow morning, but she wanted to do it with me, I think she is trying hard to get everything done so that I won’t have to do it. I urged her to wait – she did not care for all the blood during Liam’s docking, but she insisted, so we did it. It went well, but afterwards, she said again she is not sure she would do this again.

I get a lot of messages about how cute the lambs are, how adorable, how much people love them. I have learned through many episodes – euthanizing Orson, shooting dying lambs, putting Rocky down, not to romanticize our lives with animals. Lambs are cute, but there is nothing cute about bringing them into the world, or their lives once they are in it.

There are several ways to dock tails – many people use elastic bands to tie off the blood in the tail and shrivel it – but I believe that is the longest and most painful method for the animals. I have a heated electric tail docker, I plug the clipper into a socket and it gets very hot. In the first week or so of life, lambs do not have nerves in their tails, so while the docking might make them uncomfortable it is easier for them if it is done right away, in the first two or three days of life.

It is important to cut the tail off slowly – this needs to be done because this is where the sheep defecates and it is both unpleasant and unhealthy to let feces build up under a tail that is not cut. Infections can easily spring up.

If it is done slowly, as the right pace, the wound will be almost instantly cauterized as well as cut, there will be little blood. There is considerable smell, but most of it is the would smoldering on the hot docker. The lamb must be held firmly and in the right position, Maria held the lamb I hold the tail in my left hand, the docker in my right. Then, I find a spot about two inches from the end, place the docker then and squeeze. The lamb is not in pain, but is uncomfortable and anxious and screams bloody murder.  The docker cuts right the tail, and when I did Liam I moved too quickly and the wound didn’t cauterize and held to be closed with a compress, but I did it right today and there was virtually no blood at all.

After the tail is cut, we apply various ointments and disinfectants. The mother cleans up the wound, and by the next morning there is usually no trace of it.

I should say I don’t like it, it is no fun, the lambs have had idyllic hours getting milk from their mothers and lying around in cozy barn stalls under heat lamps. I get nervous clipping dog’s nails, I worry I will go too far and hurt them. I worry about the same thing with my tail docking. It is my job to bring them into the real world, it is my docker that generally ends paradise for them.

I understand that  was upsetting for Maria. She hates to see her animals bleed, and worries that they might die or suffer. I’ve done it about 75 times, I know it is not a complex procedure, and I know it doesn’t hurt much if done well. It is a powerful moment though, and it always reminds me that lambing is not really cute or pretty, not for the farmer, not for the lamb. Lambs are one of those animals that touches buttons for many people there is the image of them frolicking and dancing, people love to say “awwwww,” how cute.  I am already getting scores of messages telling me how much people love Liam or Pumpkin. And when you name an animal Pumpkin, what can you expect?

Maria is learning what I know, which is that the process is not cute, it is difficult, painful and often frightening. And more to come, our first two lambs are males, and soon will need to be castrated. That is not very cute or fun either. The New York Carriage Horse reminds me that the emotionalizing of the animal world and it’s processes can be dangerous. The horses in New York face banning, removal to rescue farms or slaughter because there are people in the city who believe hauling a carriage for giant draft horse is cruel and abusive. No one who knows or loves draft horses believes that or even understands it, but in New York it is a widely held view and it may cost the horses their lives.

So I wanted to write about tail docking because it is part of the real life of real animals. Lambs, like puppies, are cute things, but they have some hard times ahead of them, and in a few months they will just be sheep. I take a lot of cute photos of animals, so I need to be sure to be honest about the process, so that people understand that animals are not pets, and treating them as if they are can mean the end of our lives with them.

It is great fun to see photos of cute animals, it is also important to help people understand basic things about them. Lambs are not really cute, and not for long, and working horses love to work.