Dehorning
The removal of horns, or of the horn buds in young calves, to make cattle safer to handle.
Also: disbudding, debudding
Dehorning removes horns from cattle so they cannot injure people or each other. In calves it is called disbudding: the horn buds are destroyed in the first weeks of life, usually with a hot iron or a caustic paste, before the bud fuses to the skull. Older animals can be dehorned surgically, a bigger procedure. Many countries require pain relief, and some ban particular methods. The practice is debated: welfare groups and some farmers argue for keeping horns or breeding polled cattle instead, and in 2018 Swiss voters rejected a proposal to pay subsidies to farmers who keep horned cows. Many herders across Asia and Africa keep horns as a mark of beauty and breed.