June 18th, 2009 
Spooky 
BEFORE YOU SCROLL DOWN TO THE PHOTOS, BE WARNED, THEY ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED!
Welcome to the village of Salba, 610 km southeast of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. This is where 600 Siberian Marals (a subspecies of Red-Deer) lose their antlers every year. These photos, taken June 15 2009, at a private ranch, in Salba, show the marals held in special devices, in order to have their antlers removed with a hand saw.
The antlers are sold to markets in Russia and East Asia, where antler velvet is used as a holistic medicine. Some people consume the antlers themselves, grinding and consuming them in small quantities.
Marals go through this brutal process every year and, even though some say it doesn’t cause them too much pain because they have no nerves in the antlers, I still call it animal cruelty.
Photos by REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin
via Drugoi
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Have another cheeseburger, Delores.
As grusome as this looks, if theres no nerve endings and the antlers serve a real purpose then I don’t think this qualifies as animal cruelty. Its not like they’re chopping off the hooves as trophies and leaveing them to die. And dont most antler bearing creatures lose their antlers annually anyways?
Right, well I’m not sure antlers are completely without nerve endings, but seeing there’s some vascular activity there, I doubt sawing them off is like clipping your nails. And let’s leave that out. The fact that wild animals are bred in private farms, forced into some creepy device, blindfolded and immobilized just so some people can make money by selling so-called medicine is enough to convince me this is indeed animal cruelty.
But this is just a personal opinion Sky Dizzle, I respect other people’s views, even if I don’t always agree with them. Anyway, I’m glad to see you’re taking interest in my posts
As long as it doesn’t hurt them, then its okay I guess. The blindfold is so they are calm and don’t struggle, and the restraint is so they don’t run panic and get cut anywhere else. Its better than killing them for their antlers.
Maybe the Russians could have their brains removed – they wouldn’t feel it afterall…………….
Barbaric bastards. Of course they “say” the poor animals “feel no pain.” My ass.
Why is it the people who do this kind of thing always look so STUPID. No expression, no caring, no humanity. You’re right. No brains. And they treat people like that, too.