Branding of Animals

LAHORE (October 14 2007): Punjab LIVESTOCK and DAIRY Development Department has devised a project of 'identification of cattle and buffalo through branding' to control theft of cattle-heads. The project will be carried out on pilot basis in two districts of the province, ie Okara and Hafizabad. Cost of this project has been estimated at Rs 15 million and will be completed in two years.
Sources in the provincial LIVESTOCK and DAIRY development department told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the project is with the Planning and Development Department for final approval and work is expected to start during the current financial year.
Sources also said the objective of this project is to save animals from theft or trace them out after theft. "It was very difficult to trace out an animal after theft specially when it was taken to from one district to another district or sold in a market.
Under this project, animals would be stamped with an identification number, which would make it easy to recognise any cattle," they added. According to them, there are two methods of stamping or branding any animal. One is called ear tagging system where a tag bearing a number is stamped on ear of any animal and the other is 'cold branding', which is stamping the number on thigh of any animal. Cold branding is a permanent method.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2007