Cows

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Mikey was rescued when he was 3 months old in New Jersey. As the son of a dairy cow, he was taken away from his mother as soon as he was born since all her milk was to be sold to humans and not to nurse her own baby.

He was purchased by a broker who rented him to a nursery where he was used as part of a petting zoo. After trying to escape the tiny igloo he was kept in, he injured himself and a kind woman who worked there nursed him back to health, since the nursery did not want to pay for his veterinary care. Later she found out that he was scheduled to be sold for slaughter after Halloween 2013, when the season ended. After pleading with the company, they allowed her to take the calf home, so she contacted farm animals rescuer Mike Stura who finally transported the calf to Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Maryland.

Mikey, who is so sweet and friendly and just loves people, is enjoying his new freedom, running and playing in the grass for the first time in his life. He will now be able to happily graze and play on the sanctuary's 400 acres with the other 11 rescued cows, for the rest of his life. From Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary's Facebook Page.

Aggie is a young Red Shorthorn cow who was rescued when she wandered onto a farm in Winchester VA, likely escaping from a livestock auction less than a mile away. The woman who found her called around, but nobody locally was missing a calf. The sheriff’s department and the local animal control offered to take Aggie and sell her for slaughter, but the caring woman refused and decided to instead keep Aggie until she was tame enough to get onto a trailer. After feeding and caring for her for a few months she became a little more trusting, and in December 2011 we were able to pick her up and bring her to Poplar Spring. She is a very sweet and lively cow who will now be able to happily live out the rest of her life in peace and contentment.

Aggie spends most of her day grazing on grass on the 400 acres of pasture. Her best friend is Nellie, another young cow who is just a few years older. The two of them buck and run and play together and Nellie is often seen grooming Aggie. Their main diet is grass and hay, with a little sweet feed given twice a day. Apples and bananas are Aggie’s favorite treats. From Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary's website.

Mikey

Aggie

Minnie-Moo

Cows Used for Milk

More than 9.3 million cows were used to produce milk in the United States in 2008, and more than 2.5 million dairy cows were slaughtered for meat. Cows used by the dairy industry are intensively confined, continually impregnated, and bred for high milk production with little concern for their well-being. Far from being the “happy cows” the industry makes them out to be, these typically playful, nurturing animals endure immense suffering on factory farms.

Cows Used for Meat

In 2010, 34.2 million cattle were slaughtered for beef in the United States. Often beginning their short lives on rangeland, calves are soon separated from their nurturing mothers and endure a series of painful mutilations. Before they are a year old, young calves endure a long and stressful journey to a feedlot, where they are fattened on an unnatural diet until they reach “market weight” and are sent to slaughter.

Who They Really Are

Cows interact with one another in complex ways, forming collaborative relationships (for example, they form “grooming partnerships,” just like chimpanzees)1, learning from one another, and making decisions based on altruism and compassion2. Sunday Times science editor Jonathan Leake explains that “cows have a secret mental life in which they bear grudges, nurture friendships, and become excited over intellectual challenges…”3

As a researcher at Moulton College in the UK, Krista McLennan has documented the fact that cattle form deep friendships and strong family bonds. Like humans, when cattle “have their preferred partner with them, their stress levels in terms of their heart rates are reduced compared with if they are with a random individual.”4

Because of their complex social lives, they are also quite intelligent. Professor Donald Broom from Cambridge University explains: “[S]ocial animals such as cattle…need substantial intellectual ability in order to cope with their complex social life.”5 As another indication of their intelligence, cows have great memories. Professor Joe Stookey from the University of Saskatchewan explains that cattle “demonstrate good spatial memory (they remember where things are located). … They can remember migration routes, watering holes, shelter, and the location of their newborn calf.”6 Other researchers report that cows remember the best spots in a pasture for grazing.7

They are also good problem solvers. Professor Broom explains that when cows solve problems, “[t]heir brainwaves showed their excitement; their heartbeat went up, and some even jumped into the air. We called it their Eureka moment.”8 Explains Guardian science reporter Laura Spinney, “The evidence that they are capable of learning associations suggests brains that are…aware of what has happened in the past and of acting on it in the future.”9

Tim Sell, chair of the UK’s National Farmers Union explains: “They are all individuals and all have their own characteristics. They are tremendously curious. They have emotional storms. When it is a miserable, cold day, they will all be miserable, but when it is nice and sunny, you can almost see them smiling.”10

Dr. John Webster echoes Sell’s comments: “You only have to watch how cows and lambs both seek and enjoy pleasure when they lie with their heads raised to the sun on a perfect English summer’s day. Just like humans.”11 And, as Dr. Temple Grandin explains, “When big old huge dairy cows are let out in the spring, after spending the whole winter cooped up in the barn, man, they just jump around all over the fields like little calves. It’s the same feeling young animals have when they play.”12

From Farm sanctuary's website.