[Jacob-list] dehorning sheep

[Meg Steensland]

        IF she just wants a pretty sheep, maybe she'd be happy with a cross - I have 2 nonJacob ewes and they produce non-horned lambs - 4 this year, three rams already spoken for and a second person just asked me if he could buy them.  I have a single  nohorn ewe that I may put in a drawing at the fair for a youth whose parents already have sheep or goats - as I did last year with 2 ewes.  I have a lot of ewes this year - 12 and only 5 Jacob rams, so I may have a drawing for a Jacob ewe as well.  It gets people talking and asking about the breed.
   
  Also, as we all know, horned ewes aren't necessarily dangeous.  But frightened animals can be dangerous.
      
  

Melody <critterland at bendcable.com> wrote:           Need some input, please.  I just had a call from a woman who got a Jacob lamb as a pet.  It is now about 2 mo. old, has horns up about 1/2 inch according to her, and she wants to have it disbudded.  She is afraid of the horns with her small children.   She does care about the lamb, though, and was looking for advice.  The person who has offered to disbud the lamb (using an iron as for goats) is afraid it will be too stressful and harmful to the lamb.  I've never heard of disbudding a lamb, so I don't know what to tell her.  Frankly I'd like to go and snatch that lamb right off her place and bring it home--what was she thinking to get a Jacob if she didn't want horns?  But I need some opinions.  Would the pain/stress of disbudding be harmful to the lamb?  I know lambs react differently to pain than kid goats do.  
  Melody
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