Ear-tag applicator

Abstract

A hand-held device (100) for applying a tag (116, 118) to animals and extracting animal tissue, comprising: a first handle (106); a second handle (108); a first jaw portion (101) configured to engage a first portion (116) of an animal tag and an animal tissue sampler (174) for extracting animal tissue; and a second jaw portion (103) configured to engage a second portion (118) of the animal tag and a container (1181) for storing animal tissue; wherein displacing the first handle (106) in a closing direction to an engaging position causes the first portion (116) of the animal tag to engage the second portion (118) of the animal tag; and wherein displacing the first handle (106) in the closing direction to a disposing position causes the animal tissue sampler (174) to be disposed within the container (1181). A loadable biasing member (1806) causes some energy to be pre-emptively stored and released to help overcome a large resistance to allow tissue sampler (174) to pierce an animal's flesh and be disposed within container (1181).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.