# Removing a Weird Ear Tag



## farmchick (Jun 19, 2011)

We bought my market lamb from a farmer who use metal ear tags. The kind that go aorund the bottom of the ear and back up. Kind of like a C shape. Anyway, as his ear is growing, its tearing a hole. Is there anyway I can take it out? It looks very painful, we are tryin to keep it clean, but we would like to take it our for the sheep, and for the show. Anyone else have this problem before?


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## aggieterpkatie (Jun 19, 2011)

I hate those metal tags with a passion.  Find some sharp nippers and cut it at the bend, and you can usually wiggle it and get it to come apart from where it connects in the ear.


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## Bossroo (Jun 20, 2011)

Ear tags are for identification purposes, not only for the farmer's use, but in case of a desease outbrake, the animal can be traced to the original herd and then that herd can be tested to stop the spread of the desease by the State Vets and the USDA. Also, most States have transportation regulations that require health certificates for animals traveling to shows and/or interstate travel and require individual identification for desease control. So, do not remove the ear tags.


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## aggieterpkatie (Jun 20, 2011)

If the metal ear tag is just a flock tag and not a Scrapie tag it would be fine to remove it.  If it's a Scrapie tag you can always contact the breeder and ask for another tag since this one is causing issues.  They might not want to give you one, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.  All that's important with a Scrapie tag is the farm ID number, individual animal number is not so important.  

And if it's just a flock tag, the owner can re-tag it with a different tag.


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