SC - Wild Boar REC ?OOP

LrdRas@aol.com LrdRas at aol.com
Sat Sep 18 08:41:18 PDT 1999


Adamantius sez:

>Generally they (castrated animals) tend to exercise less, fight less, and
travel shorter distances for their food, which means less real muscle
mass, generally more fat, a less complex flavor due to less food
variety, less connective tissue because the muscles aren't being worked
hard, and less of the flavor of hormones like adrenalin in the meat. <

Another factor in this which you've overlooked, Adamantius, is that the same
hormone, testosterone, which makes you human males so wonderful to bed and
so impossible to live with, has actual physical effects on the meat and the
bone structure. An intact male, as a general rule, has about 15-20% greater
bone density and muscle mass than a female or castrated male. This is a
direct effect of testosterone, which is engendered by the male gonads the
same way the female gonads engender estrogen et al. When a female human
loses her ovaries, and the hormones therein, whether due to surgery or
menopause, she tends to get osteoporosis, which is a leaching of the calcium
from the bones.

A study of human castrati, mostly the wonderful singers of past centuries,
found that most of them, having been castrated early in their physical
development, tended to have flat feet and larger chests because their lesser
bone density would not support the foot arches, and allowed their rib cages
to expand.

A similar thing happened to my cousin David, a serious asthmatic, who had
been on cortisone until my aunt took him off it at age 16- the cortisone
caused a delay in puberty which allowed his soft rib bones to expand as a
result of his extra usage of air and his lungs, which has made him the only
truly barrel-chested person in our family. As soon as the cortisone was
taken away, he grew several inches, went into puberty and is now a normal,
healthy adult male, although he's only 6 ft tall- his little brother, who
had none of these problems, is 6'8".

An exception to the castrated animals being lazier and therefor having less
muscle mass would be shown in oxen and gelded horses. Both are gelded for
reasons of temperment, but both usually work very hard and develop good
muscle structure, and both are generally a bit smaller and less bulky than
the ungelded males of their species.

Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

The World's Need

So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs.

- - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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