U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Livestock branding is the technique for making cattle for identification.
The animal is captured, roped and layed on the ground with its legs tied together and an identifying mark is burned into the animals body with an extremely hot branding iron that has been heated in a fire.
The hot iron stamp, or "brand," is pressed hard into the animal's flesh for several seconds without anesthesia. If this was done to a human, it would be considered torture.
This is unnecessary pain for an animal and should be banned and replaced by ear tagging, or microchipping. We ask the USDA to ban the practice of hot iron branding.
Tom Vilsack
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250
Phone: (202) 720-2791
Email: http://ds.usda.gov/
Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Veterinary Services
Deputy Administrator Dr. John R. Clifford
USDA/APHIS/AC
4700 River Road, Unit 84
Riverdale,
MD 20737-1234
Phone: (301) 851-3751
Fax: (301) 734-4978
E-mail: ace@aphis.usda.gov
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Livestock branding is the technique for making cattle for identification.
The animal is captured, roped and layed on the ground with its legs tied together and an identifying mark is burned into the animals body with an extremely hot branding iron that has been heated in a fire.
The hot iron stamp, or "brand," is pressed hard into the animal's flesh for several seconds without anesthesia. If this was done to a human, it would be considered torture.
This is unnecessary pain for an animal and should be banned and replaced by ear tagging, or microchipping. We ask the USDA to ban the practice of hot iron branding.
