(TOUCHING TALE) A dairy cow made the tough choice to hide one of her calves after giving birth to twins. As her fifth birth, the cow remembered her previous agony and knew that both of her babies would be taken away, unless she tried to save one. The intelligence and care displayed by this mothering cow is both heartbreaking and breathtaking. Read this touching tale, told by a veterinarian, about an amazing display of motherly love that proves animals love and feel. — Global Animal
Photo Credit: APEX
By Holly Cheever, DVM, reprinted from Action for Animals
I would like to tell you a story that is as true as it is heartbreaking. When I first graduated from Cornell’s School of Veterinary Medicine, I went into a busy dairy practice in Cortland County. I became a very popular practitioner due to my gentle handling of the dairy cows. One of my clients called me one day with a puzzling mystery: his Brown Swiss cow, having delivered her fifth calf naturally on pasture the night before, brought the new baby to the barn and was put into the milking line, while her calf was once again removed from her. Her udder, though, was completely empty, and remained so for several days.
As a new mother, she would normally be producing close to one hundred pounds (12.5 gallons) of milk daily; yet, despite the fact that she was glowing with health, her udder remained empty. She went out to pasture every morning after the first milking, returned for milking in the evening, and again was let out to pasture for the night — this was back in the days when cattle were permitted a modicum of pleasure and natural behaviors in their lives — but never was her udder swollen with the large quantities of milk that are the hallmark of a recently-calved cow.
I was called to check this mystery cow two times during the first week after her delivery and could find no solution to this puzzle. Finally, on the eleventh day post calving, the farmer called me with the solution: he had followed the cow out to her pasture after her morning milking, and discovered the cause: she had delivered twins, and in a bovine’s “Sophie’s Choice,” she had brought one to the farmer and kept one hidden in the woods at the edge of her pasture, so that every day and every night, she stayed with her baby — the first she had been able to nurture FINALLY—and her calf nursed her dry with gusto. Though I pleaded for the farmer to keep her and her bull calf together, she lost this baby, too—off to the hell of the veal crate.
Think for a moment of the complex reasoning this mama exhibited: first, she had memory — memory of her four previous losses, in which bringing her new calf to the barn resulted in her never seeing him/her again (heartbreaking for any mammalian mother). Second, she could formulate and then execute a plan: if bringing a calf to the farmer meant that she would inevitably lose him/her, then she would keep her calf hidden, as deer do, by keeping her baby in the woods lying still till she returned. Third — and I do not know what to make of this myself — instead of hiding both, which would have aroused the farmer’s suspicion (pregnant cow leaves the barn in the evening, unpregnant cow comes back the next morning without offspring), she gave him one and kept one herself. I cannot tell you how she knew to do this—it would seem more likely that a desperate mother would hide both.
All I know is this: there is a lot more going on behind those beautiful eyes than we humans have ever given them credit for, and as a mother who was able to nurse all four of my babies and did not have to suffer the agonies of losing my beloved offspring, I feel her pain.
Holly Cheever, DVM
Vice President, New York State Humane Association Member
Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association’s Leadership Council
Read More Animals Rights Articles: http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-bovine.html
Check out this story about more ways animals are like humans: Neurologist: Animals Have Spiritual Experiences
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To feed on death is to become food for death. To live by other’s pain is to become a prey for pain. So has decreed the omni-will. Know that and choose your course and The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ” !!!!!
shut up
What is very sad about this story is that the farmer did not appreciate the intelligence of this cow and chose to destroy her calf and her spirit. I haven’t eaten veal since I was about 17 years old when I saw an anti-veal ad in a Cosmopolitan magazine – I was horrified, even back then. I am now 53 years old and have been vegan for six months and I’m not looking back. My soul is finally at peace and I am pleased that I am no longer a part of the suffering.
Any explanation as to how the cow would have stopped her calf from following her from the pasture in the evening? What about another commenter’s suggestion that the calf was simply too weak to follow her? I’d love to share this with non-veggie friends, but that would be counter-productive if they could poke holes in the story.
That reply was to Nina Oh, but it didn’t place itself where it should have!
I got the impression that since she would return to the barn with flat udders, she didn’t get attached to the machine. It would be obvious she was already empty. The little bull would have been enjoying mother’s milk same as for one baby, and the supply would have not been fully developed into double amounts without the second little one there to up her supply. Works on the supply and demand concept. Anyway, it’s an amazing and very, very sad story.
Wow… that is an impressive and touching story! One question: Can anyone explain why the cow produced less milk; she should have been able to feed two calves, and if she was milked daily in addition to feeding her baby, she should have continued to produce enough milk for both the milking and the calf, right?
Why didn’t the author/veternarian buy the cow and her calf and pay the farmer for upkeep? This would have allowed the cow to continue her behavior under observation and controls which ultimately could have led to a valuable publication.
I absolutely agree that there is no excuse for the way the dairy industry is conducted. It’s abusive. However, I would expect a slightly more scientific approach to logic and animal behaviour from a vet. There are many explanations for this chain of events. The calf may simply have been too weak to follow its mother at first – who knows?
I don’t need to believe that a cow has “x” powers of deduction before I know that it should be treated humanely. I don’t need faulty human reasoning to convince me that animals have valid emotional needs. By all means, let’s get the message out that the dairy industry sucks, and for that matter so does the beef industry. But let’s do it by telling the truth, because that way we won’t look like fools in the process.
This really sucks. Mother cows should be allowed to raise their babies!
Please try to understand that people who can’t perceive the spiritual equality of all living beings are greatly unfortunate. The only solution is to act to enlighten them, by becoming spiritual aware ourselves. If we don’t recognize the inherent spiritual value of ourselves we can’t see it in others, and everything becomes a commodity meant for sensual exploitation, which has resulted in our current state of global chaos and moral collapse.
:’(
Very sad and touching story. Mr. Naoto Matsumura, in Fukushima’s exclusion zone, already knows the cows deserve our respect and love. He’s spent the last year in Tomioka caring for cows, cats, dogs, pigs and ostriches.More…
Well, now I’m depressed. Not only because of the outcome, but because I don’t think it should come as any surprise that this mother was a sentient, loving, feeling creature- and yet, this fact is denied by millions of people every day.More…
wow beautiful story poor mom i was vegetarian until my muslim husband was eating meat i feel bad i hope one day everybody would be vegetarian
Shared.
I wish I had’t read this one..But for you veal lovers you just might want to read it!!!!!!!!
Linda, it’s not just the fact that the bull calves go for veal, the female ones are take as well (how else do you think the milk is produced for the food market?) to go into the milking line when they’re old enough. Mother cows never get to bring up their babies!