A 1920s Burdizzo Castration Device

Origin: British
Period: Twentieth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1920-30
Length: 16 inches
Compact Width: 2.5 inches

The Burdizzo is a castration device, which employs a large clamp designed to break the blood vessels leading into the testicles. Once the blood supply to the testicles is lost, testicular necrosis occurs, and the testicles shrink, soften, and eventually deteriorate completely.

Used primarily on farm animals, this rather crude device has been used by some human males as a means of self-castration, often by those seeking a remedy for a high sex drive, or those who, for religious or personal reasons, seek to become eunuchs.

This is an early example, in good condition; especially considering all the use one presumes it has had with rampaging bullocks. Or indeed, bollocks….