I grew up on a pig farm so I do have some good stories... but probably the "worst" was when we had to "fix" the male pigs.

For those of you that don't know, if a pig still has its testicles, the meat will be gross and tough, inedible.

So at a very young age, they are removed.

This was back in the late 70's so I'm sure the process has changed a bit but our process was:

Catch The pig

Hold him upside down by the back legs with his back to your chest and his "crotch" about even with the middle of your chest (when I was young, this was made easier by a coffee can tied with binder twine around my neck, the pig's snout went into the can).

Spread legs.

Other person makes a small incision, reaches in with a finger, pulls out the testicles and cuts them off.

Iodine is sprayed into the opening, a couple shots are given to hold off infection.

Let pig go.


We had several "farm dogs" who very much enjoyed this job, since they'd eat pig testicles all day long.

The worst part of the job is when the pig would get his snout out of the can and bite your leg. In my case, being very young, they'd reach about to my upper calf. I still have one scar on my right calf from a bite!

Oh, man, oh, man.
You are right.
We only had a pair of hogs once but I'm still haunted by the shrieks and horrific squeals of the day my dad castrated the young hogs. He and my cousin made me wait on the far side of the truck because I was only 10 and a bit of a city boy.
I remember peeking under the truck and all I could see was Dad's hands pouring iodine on his pocket knife and turning towards the hog.
Ugh! Fingers plunged in my ears couldn't keep the squeals out of my head.
The pork and sausage were great all the next year. But now I'm going to rethink breakfast in the morning and skip the bacon.
-=Shane

Been there done that. We didn't put the snout in a can though. We would put about 10 in a pin and run around grabbing what we could. After about 3 they would all start squealing and biting each other and us. We had to be fast. We also would take the bull calves from the local dairy farms. They didn't want them because they can't produce milk. Anyhow, 75% of the time they would not survive so we had to "dispose" of them. That was a NASTY dirty job.

I've done that...
Except i had to do it to baby cattle!
You can imagine how much they struggle when that happens! But i know what you mean blood everywere and squeals, screams, man its just not right is dirty messy and just straight out nasty