Cowism
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    • Brave Act: 70-year-old Fights off Tiger To Rescue Cow
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  • Cow And Humanity
    • Cow Is Complete Ecology
    • Cow: An Engine Of Progress And Prosperity
    • Cow: A Life Form For All-round Good Of The World​
  • Cows Are Cool
    • The Old Man And The Cow - An Extraordinary Friendship
    • A Mean Leopard : Moo-ved By The Love of A Cow
    • Ways To Cool Down An Angry Bull
    • Looking Beyond Their Exterior
    • Motherly Licks That Saved A Life
    • Brainy Bovines
    • Cows Don’t Want to Die
    • Emily the Cow Who Saved Herself
    • Cows Never Forget A Place or a Face
    • Wooden Cow Moo-ves Hearts
    • The Social Lives of Cows
    • Canada Owes A Lot To This Cow
    • Gentle Giants
    • Cows To Reform Prisoners In Indian Jails
    • Cows Grieve
    • She Liked To Listen To Your Story
    • The Brave Russian Bull
    • Cows Are Intensely Emotional
    • Cow Feeds Baby Goats
    • Some Facts About Cows!
    • This One Is ‘Paan’ Fanatic!
    • Kids And Cows - In Ancient India
    • Cows Love This 8 Years Old Girl
    • Study : Cows Excel At Selecting Leaders
    • Bulls - An Observation
    • An Old Cow Tugs At Millions of Heartstrings
    • Cow’s Cradle
    • Sweet Music for Milking
    • Happy Cows, Happy Society
    • Holy Cow! De-stressing Is So Simple
    • The Path of Prosperity - Little Girl Has Better Idea
    • Cows - Fussy About Cleanliness
    • Cows Moo With A Regional Accent
    • Canny Cows
    • The ‘Gentle’ Bessie
    • 14 Cows For America
    • Ganga’s Story
    • Cows Form Cliques!
    • Cowlick - The Way To Give ‘Solace’
    • Story of Sadie - The Face of Modern Dairy Industry
    • Cows Have Strange Sixth Sense
    • Cows Are Precious
    • Ignorance - A Prerequisite of The Standard Western Diet
    • Inseparable Friends - A Calf And A Goat
    • What Do Cows Drink? - A Riddle
    • Suddenly in Fashion - Farming and Cows
    • Cow Fashion Show
    • This One Was My Bodyguard
    • Appendix
  • To Kill Cow
    • Section I : Life Is Sacred >
      • Animals Have A Soul
      • Mother And Child - A Story
      • Religious Philosophy And Attitude Towards Animals
      • Hunter And The Sage
      • Legalized Terrorism - Animal Abuse And Killing
    • Section II : Why Do Indians Consider Cow As Sacred? >
      • Sacred Cow - A Dumb Indian Idea?
      • Cow Gives And Gives And Gives
      • Humanity Owes Milk Debt To Cows
      • Cow - The Provider of All Human Necessities
      • Cow - A Symbol of Innocence, Purity And Magnanimity
      • To Further The Cause of Cow Protection
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NOBLE COW: MUNCHING GRASS LOOKING CURIOUS AND JUST HANGING AROUND

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14.
Bovine Buddies
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       ​Cows can make friends and at least one researcher has shown that such bonds among a herd may impact a dairy’s bottom line.
       ​Krista McLennan, a researcher and associate lecturer in Animal Welfare, made the discovery while working on her doctoral program involving a study of the social bonds among dairy cattle and the effects of group systems on welfare and productivity at England’s Northampton University.
       ​The 27-year-old measured the heart rates and cortisol levels of cows to see how they cope when isolated. Cattle were penned on their own, with their best friend or with another cow they did not know for 30 minutes and their heart rates were measured at 15-second intervals.
        ​The research showed cows are indeed social animals and often form close connections with other animals in their herd.
       ​When heifers have their preferred partner with them, their stress levels in terms of their heart rates are reduced compared with if they were with a random individual. If we can encourage farmers to keep an eye out for those cows which like to keep their friends with them, it could have some real benefits, such as improving their milk yields and reducing stress for the animals, which is very important for their welfare.
       ​McLennan noted that modern farming practices often means cows are separated during visits from a veterinarian or when farmers move their animals.
       ​“We know re-grouping cows is a problem, because there’s a high level of stress among animals as they try to integrate into a new group,” she states.

What It All Means

The story of “bovine buddies” has received enormous media exposure, especially considering that it was a doctoral project, not a study authored by seasoned scientists. Earthweek, the environmental news service, covered it in detail. VegNews, a British vegetarian news service, trumpeted the findings under the headline, “Cows get Stressed When Separated.” Mainstream media also got involved, with stories syndicated by the Associated Press, McClatchy-Tribune News Service also weighed in with reports on the research.

Whenever one has had occasion to visit India, one has invariably found the sacred cows peaceful, far from intimidating and, above all, minding their own business. One is left to wonder why? After all, a cow is a cow is a cow. One supposes the contrast may well be due to the marked difference between the Western and Eastern ethos. Does make one wish the human beings would take a leaf out of the way of life of the bovines! There must be a moral in this somewhere, though one is at a loss to pinpoint it.

​— Jason Wright, El Paso
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        ​Why? Three reasons come to mind:
      - Anthropomorphism. We modern folk humanize virtually every species in the animal kingdom. Egged on by the endless Disney-fiction of animals, we ascribe (of course, we may be justified in doing so) human-like intelligence, emotions and behaviors to everything from singing, dancing dinosaurs to cats and dogs with more personality than game show hosts to sharks who swear off eating fish in order to access their nobler selves. Within that contest, cows palling around with buddies in the barn seems as natural as the hay that they’re eating.
        ​-Empathy. Deep down, almost all of us want food animals treated humanely and given opportunities for a satisfying life. If “friendship” can be part of that package, all the better.
        ​- Reconnection. With the cultivation and production of virtually all of our food-supply staples—with the possible exception of some summertime excursions to a u-pick field or farmers’ market—divorced and distanced from us urban dwellers, the idea that something simple could leverage a better life for dairy cows provides a pathway for people to feel as if they have informed opinions on the often-complex issues related to food.
        ​All that said, from what has been published, a change in management that would allow cows to spend the bulk of their time with herd mates that seem to keep them calmer makes sense. With all livestock, producers invest heavily in ventilation, lighting and feeding systems designed to reduce stress and improve performance.
        ​Why not a buddy system? If it helps maintain the cows’ temperament and contributes to better care, that seems like a sensible strategy to pursue.
        ​And if it helps support the notion that producers are growing more sensitive to animals’ emotional and psychological needs, where’s the harm in that?
                                                                                           --(By Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist)

A cow is another animal that has its own particular aroma. I’m not talking about the stench that overwhelms your smelling orifices when you pass one of our local dairies. I’m talking about the cow’s own body odor and breath aroma. It is very special just as a cow’s own personal scent. This smell sometimes is triggered if I smell a partly empty milk carton, and remember how many times a cow kicked over a milk bucket when it was almost full, or how annoying it was to get hit in the face with a dirty cow’s tail or kicked over backward from an ornery cow’s back leg.

—Tony L. Carter
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