With a simple tool set including a specialized timber prop, a knife, a
scissors, a pincers and a needle, pig gelders have earned their livings for
decades at the Loc Binh kermis in the northern border province of Lang Son.

To have high meat output, pigs must be sterilized. Pig
castration has been job in rural Vietnam for centuries.

Gelders only sterilize sows because boars are gelded very
early, at 15-days-old, so they are often castrated at home by farmers
themselves. Sows can be gelded at the age of two month old and only “experts”
can do this job.

VietNamNet captures this special job at Loc Binh market:

There is a separate zone for pigs in Loc Binh market. The
kermis five days a week.

Gelders, with their simple tool sets, move from market to
market.

The first stage in pig castration is tying pigs to the
racket.

It is not easy to tie them because if they are not tied securely, the castrator

can’t do his job properly.

After tying them to the racket, the castrator uses a sharp
knife to slit a line

which is wide enough for a finger at an accurate position
that only experts can estimate.

Depending on the body structure of the pig and the skill of
the worker,

the reproductive organ is taken out fast or slow (only several
minutes).

This procedure is painful for pigs.

This organ, which looks like a piece of bowel, is the

reproductive organ and it must be cut off.

The incision is sewed together by a normal needle.

The pincer is used to pull out the milk teeth.

The castrator cleans the incision by a cloth. The pig is put

back into a bamboo cage to be brought home.

The “spoils” of Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, a castrator with 30
years of experience

at Loc Binh kermis. Thanh said he sterilizes 10-15 sows at
a market-day,

earning around VND200,000 ($10).

Anh Le