Science Questions

What’s the natural way of severing the umbilical cord?

What’s the natural way of severing the umbilical cord in animals? We have plastic clips an pairs of scissors. Andrew

Kat - The animal is not very pleasant: they chew it off. Nice sharp teeth, chew it off. This is because many animals, in fact the mother, after birth will eat the placenta. The [umbilicus] is not actually attached to the mother, it’s attached to the placenta. The placenta’s full of lots of goodies. If you’re an animal you probably don’t want it to go to waste.

Chris - It’s the one piece of meat a vegetarian can eat without harming anybody.

November 2008