Abstract: Apparatus for holding the head of an animal severed from its body for use in cutting the edible portions from the bones. The head is clamped between first and second members rotatably about a common axis and displaceable towards each other. The snout is received in the appropriately configured first member and a prong of the second member penetrates into the foramen magnum in the occipital bone. The rotation of the first and second members may be braked or arrested by a friction brake. To move the lower jaw away from the upper jaw in order to remove the lower jaw a hook member engaged the lower jaw and pulls it open by means of a foot-operated piston-and-cylinder unit. Another piston-and-cylinder unit forcibly drives the first and second members toward each other to firmly clamp the head therebetween.