some years ago, my dear Mr Bingley started a thread (which i can't find) about all the specialized words for animal 'droppings'
manure, (chicken sh*t)
Frass (insect)
Offal (i forget)
Others (lots, that i forgetten, but often recognize when i see them)

and it got me thinking..
a dog is spayed
a cat neutered
a horse gelded--resulting in a gelding

a cow? (the result is oxen, but the process? does it have a specific name?)

are there other words specifically for neutering different species?

when it's done to a camel or an elephant, or a ram (the result is a bellwether, but is it called neutering or spaying or bellwethering? or something else?)

>which I can't find

easy peasy

-joe (yes, we once kept things on a spectral plane) friday

Neutered vrs spayed is more about gender, I though. Females are spayed, males are neutered. Castration was the more generic term used on the ranch, which applied to the process for any male animal (and covers humans as well). 'Fixed' is also a common choice from vets.

According to the OED, one meaning of "ox" is a castrated bull. It does not list a desexed cow as a definition of "ox"

An ox can be simply a bovine, not necessarily neutered, of either gender. The term in general usage is applied especially to draught animals. From Oxford Compact Dictionary:

• noun (pl. oxen) 1 a domesticated bovine animal kept for milk or meat; a cow or bull. 2 a castrated bull, especially as a draught animal. — ORIGIN Old English.

Female cats are spayed or neutered - either term is used, along with colloquial terms like 'done' or 'fixed.'

An uncastrated ram is sometimes called a 'tup.' But I think the verb can mean to castrate. It can also mean to copulate.

Cutting of lambs tails is often done at the same time as castration and is called 'docking.'

As for the scatalogical discussions, I wish to state at the outset that "The Pook" has no etymology whatsoever relating to the word 'poo.'

Here in Australia, the droppings of wild or feral animals are called 'scats.' Dog poos on footpaths (which is what we call sidewalks) are sometimes reffered to as landmines.

Females of most farm animals aren't fixed. Animals that are kept as pets, yes, animals that are kept for meat or produce (wool, eggs, milk, etc) are not. Female skunks are typically 'fixed' simply because a female skunk in heat is not really a tolerably house pet.

a female skunk in heat is not really a tolerably house pet. Oh, dear.

Are y'all sure this topic is apolitical enough?

Are you concerned about offending any skunks who may be reading?

Well, I'm sure animals don't vote! :0)

If it's not appropiate, I do apologize!

Skunks, while not a popular pet in many areas, are available in a domestic variety. Many early settlers kept them, because even a descented skunk deters predators from chicken houses and such. They're behavior is similar to a cat. Currently, there are several states that permit skunks as pets, though many states do not recognize rabies vaccinations on them, which is concerning since it means the family pet will be put down if it bites someone.

But back on topic...there are a variety of terms for a castrated animal, such as capon for an ex-rooster...Is that more what you were looking for?

I suppose the only use for a capon, apart from soup, is to keep the hens in line? Otherwise it wouldn't be worth the effort I should think. And does de-sexing them stop them crowing early in the morning? I recently had to dispatch three chickens the Pookwife bought that turned out to be roosters, when they started crowing (we live in town not on a farm).

I never heard of a capon being used for anything than being eaten. Don't imagine they're going to be kept much past the stage when they become big enough to eat anyway. It beats losing half your output if you're raising them from eggs.

and superheroes.

(Kidding).

A capon is a cockerel (a male Chicken whose reproductive organs were removed at a young age). Typically, the castration is performed when the chicken is between 6 and 20 weeks old.
The benefits are a non-aggressive male that can serve as a mother for baby chicks. (hmm...) They also produce ample, tender meat when butchered and as such are a choice poultry meat in some locales.
The caponisation of poultry is banned in the United Kingdom on animal welfare grounds, though the meat itself is not illegal.
(?).

Although neither hens nor capons crow,.......
Roosters were castrated to make them shut up, while human males were castrated to make them sing. It's a weird wide world.

There is apparently a new procedure to which our butterscotch male (named of course Butters) was applied that removes the interior contents but not the bag itself and I wonder if anyone knows what it's called

Scooping out like a melon?

Found some stuff: gelding, neutering, orchiectomy, orchidectomy, and oophorectomy. And:

* Barrow (pig)
* Bullock (cattle)
* Capon (chicken)
* Dinmont (sheep, goat)
* Gelding (horse)
* Gib (cat, ferret)
* Havier (deer)
* Lapin (rabbit)
* Stag (cattle, sheep)
* Steer (cattle)
* Wether (sheep, goat)

And check the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castration to read under "Castration in Humans", the last paragraph about China. Oooph!!!

Great observation!

My favorite voice is countertenor.

Still easy enough to come by if you know where to look and have the money. I don't know what "castrati" would be in Marathi, but I do know that's where you can still buy them.

Okay, if we're gonna get picky...

Human males weren't aren't castrated to "make them sing". They already sang sing. The castration was is to make them sing, from then on, in their boyish soprano/alto tessitura. The talent had has to be there to begin with, as no amount of castration will turn a croaker into a crooner! ;0)

Battery production of chickens is not considered abuse but castration is. hmm, must be the emotional abuse.
I am embarrassed to say that Canadian law regarding humane treatment of birds, the cage size etc., specifically excludes birds raised for food. We have ethics, unless our profit is at affected.

What she said.

Fal, yes

Maybe slightly OT, but

March 23, 2008: Barsexual

A college-age girl who kisses other girls in bars and clubs, usually for attention and the approval of men.

Interesting and puzzling to note at this point how straight men are put off my displays of male affection but turned on by those of female gender

Is was it as it is?
I know young male singers of talent were/are castrated to keep their voice in their boyish soprano/alto tessitura. -sing...........
The contradictionality 'capon'__ 'human' was more on my mind than the technically correct part. I used the past tense to take a big step past the unpleasant forms of mutilation.

neuter

Originally a grammatical term, Latin neuter 'neither (of two)', i.e., not of the masculine or feminine gender, is a calque of Greek ουδετερος (oudeteros) 'neither of the two'. (Almost all Latin grammatical terminology are loan translations from the Greek terms. Another Greek term for the neuter gender is μεταξυ (metaksu) 'between'.) The verb neuter meaning 'to castrate' is just over a hundred years old.

Are people put off your displays of male affection? Or did you mean 'by' instead of 'my'?

I was waiting for someone to ask about that, because when I read it, assumed he was gay!

when I read it, assumed he was gay!

He is rather jovial, but I assumed that Bill Gates crawled into his 'puter and mucked about with his keyboard driver thus substituting m for b.

I caught it too but hoping it doesn't represent some sort of dark repressed Freudian tendency

I changed the rest to make it true... ;0) LOL!