So it's been quite the learning curve this week to visit a cattle forum I was expecting to be a supportive, educational environment where I could learn some things to ensure my little darling SpitSpot would be happy and healthy forever more.
She's at the age where she will be coming into season, and I've not been overly fond of the idea of putting her to a bull when the time comes (and believe me, I've read and read about ideal weight, age, cycle time, age and type of bull, his calf weights and ease of birth scores and so on and so forth). I'm not the sort of person that thinks everything with a womb should automatically reproduce. I'm a major advocate for de sexing companion animals, and can lecture someone for hours on the health benefits from not letting them go on heat or have a litter prior to the chop. For hours. And hours.
So a moo cow it seems is a tad different - or is it? I'm trying to battle my way through information about what happens if she doesn't breed, and.. Well, there isn't any. Cows have calves. You then either kill the boy calf or sell it for meat. The girl calves then have calves when they're ready. And so the cycle continues.
I have nothing against the beef or dairy industry - I wouldn't say I like the slaughter and need for it - but I'm not one to get on my high horse about it. It is what it is.
But that doesn't mean I want to be a part of that cycle, and this has caused UPROAR on the cattle question and answers board. I have enraged people. I have been threatened, had my sanity questioned, been called a hoarder, and been informed I should be charged for cruelty to animals.
Why? I don't have a bull to put my 7-12 month underage heifer to, and if I did, I wouldn't want to kill the calf myself, or keep a cycle of breeding heifers I don't really want to see go to market for meat. I am A BAD PERSON for sourcing alternatives to her spending the next 10-20 years breeding a calf a year. I am cruel for keeping a cow. I am a hoarder for keeping a cow. I should shoot her, keep her head over my fireplace and eat her, because a life with me is a fate worse than death. She will grow to over a tonne, kill me and all whom I love, break out of our farm and hunt people down and kill them because she hasn't had a calf.
Here's me thinking going on heat for a day ever month if she didn't go in calf wouldn't be the worse outcome in the world.
I AM WRONG.
Cows can't be trained. They can't respect me. They can't show affection or loyalty. She will kill me as soon as look at me. She has no purpose in life and should be killed as she is so unhappy not getting pregnant.
Here's some snapshots of my terrifying, crazed killing machine trying to knock me off for forcing her into a life of misery and pain:
See? Pure evil. And I don't just mean the cow. Good job I have several months up my sleeve to work out her future baby-daddy, as I can't see too many other options around this, and then obviously the world will end if she has a boy, I keep it, chop it's bits off and they can live a life together of companionship and happiness - and hopefully not too many murders between them, or cruelty to animal charges against me. I have been well and truly generalized as being a mad hippy for not ruthlessly killing a few-hours-old calf and nurturing her to grow into a happy, healthy little heifer, so I'm going to do my own generalizing and say - wow, Americans. Gotta love the attitude of Kill it with Fire! to what they don't know or understand. Here's to my cow and I being complete nutjobs, and bloody happy with it, babies or no babies - better to be a hippy than a keyboard warrior bully with no compassion or desire to live anything but a small, closed existence where killing things because they don't fit the norm is standard practice. Moo to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment