Cowism
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    • The Bull Star - Busier Than Bollywood Heroes
    • Secret of India’s Street Roaming Cows
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    • ‘Sweet’ Memories of World War II
    • Cows Turn Pastureland Into Useful Food
    • Fresh Grass to Fresh Milk: A Life Giving Miracle
    • Basava - An Oracle Ox
    • We Are A Family
    • Bovine Buddies
    • Brave Act: 70-year-old Fights off Tiger To Rescue Cow
    • The Emotional Depth of A Cow
    • Holy Cow That Received Enlightenment
    • Last Frontiers of Inhumanity
    • For The Crime of Taking A Walk
    • The Funniest, Happiest Cow that Ever Lived
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    • Until The Cows Come Home
    • “Help! My Cow Speaks Cantonese!”
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    • A Day With Krishna’s Cows In Vraja
    • A Good Life Makes For Happy Cows
    • When Friends Just Stand By
    • Passing Away
    • Where Are The Boy Cows?
    • I'm Sorry, What Was Your Name Again?
  • 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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COWS ARE COOL: LOVE ‘EM!

34.
Canny Cows

By Trudy Frisk


        Cows are smart. It’s been said on television so it must be true. After years of being jeered at because they refused to fetch, heel, roll over or perform other humiliating tricks to please humans, cows have been recognized as having their own skills. Researchers, earlier thinking that cows make poor dogs or chimpanzees, devised tests that make sense to a cow. The results came as a surprise to many. Cows can tell the difference between a man and a woman. Even if the people change places. Even if the woman stands on a box to appear taller. There’s more. After just a few lessons, cows learned to bunt a large red button with their heads to obtain grain. Cows have been moved way up the IQ ladder.
        No more will the adjective ‘bovine’ denote something large, lethargic, placid and dim.
        Where do cattle learn engineering? If there’s an M.I.T., is there a B.I.T. (Bovine Institute of Technology)? Recently I noticed how easily cows find mountainous paths to reach heights for summer grazing. As any hiker who’s followed a cow trail knows, cattle are unsurpassed at constructing maximum gain with minimum grade. Not for them the anguish of the steep mountains. The Sea to Sky highway leaves cows unimpressed. Cows are calm creatures. No straight up, curling round the precipice paths for them, but, cows get there. No puffing, no huffing, just steady meandering upward avoiding obstacles while munching the occasional clump of grass.
According the Humane Society of the United States, if an individual cow in a herd is shocked by an electric fence, the rest will become alarmed and learn to avoid it. Only a small fraction will ever be shocked.
Some cows never forget those who have hurt them either.
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        When they’re away from human scrutiny, do cows practise sneaking? I bet researchers assume cows are clumsy. Hah! One winter day a friend and I were lunching during a hike on ranch land. Not a single cow was in sight. Our attention was drawn to crashing and crackling along the dry streambed to our left. Eventually two very noisy cows appeared. When we turned back we met the inscrutable gaze of forty pairs of bovine eyes. While the scout cows in the coulee distracted us, forty of their sisters snuck silently to within ten feet of us. That’s one hundred and sixty tippy-toes! They planned the diversion before they snuck. Scientists should be asking how. (Trudy Frisk is a freelance writer living in Kamloops, B.C., Canada)
Saunaka and the rsis were astonished to hear that the pious Maharaja Pariksit simply punished the culprit and did not kill him. This suggests that a pious king like Maharaja Pariksit should have at once killed an offender who wanted to cheat the public by dressing like a king and at the same time daring to insult the purest of the animals, a cow. The rsis in those days, however, could not even imagine that in the advanced days of the age of Kali the lowest of the sudras will be elected as administrators and will open organized slaughterhouses for killing cows.
        ~Srila Prabhupada (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.16.5)

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