Don’t Bite The Balls Off
You’d think this was right up there with superfluous “Warning: Do not apply this air nailer to your scrotum” stickers, but apparently not. The CDC has found it necessary to warn against castrating lambs with one’s teeth:
During June, two men had reported onset of symptoms compatible with campylobacteriosis. Both patients had diarrhea, and one also had abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, and vomiting. One patient was hospitalized for 1 day. Both patients recovered without sequelae. During June, both patients had participated in a multiday event to castrate and dock tails of 1,600 lambs. Both men reported having used their teeth to castrate some of the lambs. Among the 12 persons who participated in the event, the patients are the only two known to have used their teeth to castrate lambs.
I can only imagine that this is a sort of rural rite of passage, like the crab boat greenhorns on The Deadliest Catch who are encouraged to bite the heads off the bait herrings. But still: bad idea.
Spotted by Charlie Stross.
Similar Sex Blogging:
Shorter URL for sharing: https://www.erosblog.com/?p=7596
It’s funny that you mention one of the discovery channel shows, because this was one of the dirty jobs on the show Dirty Jobs.
Actually, this was the topic of an episode of “Dirty Jobs” with Mike Rowe, which he describes in this hilarious talk at the TED conference: http://www.ted.....html
Castrating lambs with one’s teeth was not an uncommon practice – in the 19th century.
And here is the clip from the actual Dirty Jobs episode: http://www.yout..._GYBk
I really recommend the TED speech if you can spare the 5 minutes.
Er… Do you spit or swallow?
I mean, does the practicer commonly spit everything out, or just the scrotal sack and swallow the testicles themselves like some sort of sushi oyster, or is the sack itself a delicacy as well?
I vote for “they had a huge number to do, got bored, and deicded to see what they tasted like”. Either that, or someone lost a bet!
I live in Iowa and some of my friends’ fathers castrated that way when they were younger.
They’re not bad fried. I don’t know if I’d want to try them … ahem, “Fresh”.
Many Basque sheepherders still do it this way. Saves carrying/sharpening a knife. I always wondered if anyone had ever attempted it on a calf, or a colt. Probably not, due to fairly obvious physical constraints.