Cow Shot At State Fair Was Not A Nutcase
Edited to add: Pictures from the first protest. The second protest is scheduled for tonight, July 29th from 6-8 pm at the main entrance to the state fair.
Every year at county and state fairs, farmers drag heavily pregnant mothers, stick them in small cages in full view of the public and wait for them to give birth.
Yesterday in California, at the site of the state fair, a pregnant Holstein cow became frightened and bolted. The fair was not open to the public at the time.
Instead of backing off and letting the obviously stressed animal calm down, police decided to hop in a large SUV and drive after her. When that brilliant technique failed, it was decided the cow should be killed. UC Davis officials busted out a tranquilizer gun but apparently no one knew how to use it. So police shot her several times in the side. Yes. The side. Police discharged lethal weapons at a pregnant mother’s stomach.
Both the cow and her unborn calf died.
The explanation for the cow’s behavior? Dr. Ben Norman has the answer, “I think she’s a nutcase.” Mr. Norman has spent 30 years in the veterinary field, most of that overseeing the health care of the animals at the state fair, and THAT’S his expert opinion? She’s a nutcase? Seriously?
Of course it is easy for Mr. Norman to blame the victim. It’s done all the time. She’s just a cow. She’s a pregnant female. She’s a nutcase. Goodness forbid anyone question the very reason WHY she is there in the first place, let alone question how incredibly wrong every single official handled this situation. I mean who would think a pregnant cow finds being put on display in a new, scary place overwhelming? She wasn’t a “nutcase”, she was a mother who wanted to calf somewhere quiet, somewhere comfortable, someplace she knew. That wasn’t the state fair in front of children and their parents.
I work with cows and other farmed animals. I’ve been in situations involving frightened, flighty animals. Oftentimes the best method of reducing their stress is to leave them alone. If their life is not in imminent danger and if there aren’t a lot of humans in danger, there is absolutely no reason to pursue, harass, intimidate or physically restrain a scared, stressed animal. None. You would think with all the vets, vet students, police and officials around, someone would have thought about just locking the gates and leaving the cow alone. I can guarantee you she would have calmed down and while she was calming down, folks could have constructed a large corral and eventually herded her into it.
That is not the mentality at the state fair, though. Or at farms. It seems everyone there thought it perfectly okay to physically dominate another living being. They thought it was perfectly fine to chase down a freaked out mother-to-be. They seemed to believe tranquilizing her while agitated was a grand idea. They thought the best way to herd ONE freaking cow was with a giant SUV. And when that all failed, the conclusion was to pump a bunch of bullets into the cow and her unborn calf.
The real problem is obvious: impregnating female cows, pigs, and goats and using them. Putting them on display so children can witness the “miracle of birth” is the problem. Drinking milk and eating pork are the problems. I mean those are the real issues. Of course, the aftermath of this case will be how best to handle outraged mothers instead of just stopping the problem by not putting the very private event of birth on display.
One cow and her baby will suffer no more. They are dead. Had they survived, she would have been re-impregnated, lost her children, and then she would have been slaughtered. Her children faced the same fate.
I wish they could have lived out their lives on a sanctuary, free to be with one another, relate to each other in a purely bovine fashion.
I cannot lighten the situation too much, but in a valiant attempt here are three bovines who will only know love and compassion. Elsa is in the front – she’s a 15-yr-old former dairy cow. Behind her are Summer & Freedom, two discarded male calves of the dairy industry. They are truly happy cows.
Stephanie Ernst
Marji
Kelly G.
Deb
Mary Martin
As everyone knows, a pregnant cow is a “she,” but in the video, state fair GM Brian May calls her an “it.”
So does the TV reporter Tom Duhain, and so does the person who wrote the article next to the video. Or should I say “the person WHICH wrote the article” — because that is how the poor cow is described, as a “which” instead of a “who.”
And the headline writer is no better, calling the distraught mom-to-be “ornery.”
How children love animals for as long as they do, in spite of the way adults demean these beautiful creatures, is beyond me.
I’m glad the woman who witnessed the shooting and called it the worst thing she’d ever seen was allowed to tell her story. I hope she and the friends with whom she promised to share the horrors of this killing allow themselves to question, perhaps for the first time, the morality of humans stealing milk from animal mothers and their babies.
I knew that some people impregnate their dogs so their children can witness the “miracle” of puppies being born, but I didn’t realize that the same kind of folks would callously allow their children to witness a caged-up, terrified cow being forced to deliver her offspring in front of a crowd of loud, obnoxious strangers. It would be so simple for the bystanders to ask themselves, “Would I want that done to me?”
But, then again, as many of the crude, cruel comments under the story attest, our innate compassion for animals is ripped out of us when we’re too young to defend ourselves. This tragic tale is one more proof that humans don’t just betray the animals; they betray their own sense of decency, their own conscience, their own “better angels.”
Very well put, Olivia. All of it.
It’s been cringe-worthy reading the articles. It, it, that, it, that…makes me want to scream.
For Shame. Poor creature. What awful nutcase men.
It’s beyond me, I mean, this kind of cruelty — state fairs in the first place are hideous.
Thanks for the post.
Marji, thanks for your take on this from someone who really knows cows. And, Olivia, your comment is so true.
“I think she’s a nutcase.”
Bah, whatever happened to “Thou shalt not anthropomorphize”? I guess it’s okay when done in service of a speciesist agenda? *eyeroll*
Give Elsa some hugs and shoulder rubs from us, okay? If she wants them, that is.
I know, right? It’s mind-boggling, really.
Elsa enjoyed the butt rubs (she’s not a hugging kind of cow). Summer smothered me in snot. Bovine love.
And of course, use of the word “nutcase” alone to describe someone (human or nonhuman) makes me all kinds of uncomfortable, regardless.
Oops. Don’t know what happened to the part of my comment that was supposed to come before that…
It’s so frustrating that there’s usually such this complete failure to imagine things from the animal’s perspective, to consider (or believe) that the animal will have feelings and thoughts and reactions to and about her surroundings and what’s being done to her. In line with where Kelly was going, she can’t possibly have feelings and thoughts and understandable reactions, but sure, she can be “crazy.” And I don’t think we have to work too hard here to draw the connections to the way women have been and are still described in certain circumstances by certain people.
Oh, definitely. So much ableism, sexism and speciesism crammed into just five words!
You people are nuts. Protest,go do something useful with your time.
Jeff, you don’t sound like you’re any better than that veterinarian. How are you, a person commenting on a blog, any better than us, other people commenting on a blog?
Well, I did. I stood outside of Cal Expo for 1.5 hours, holding signs and protesting.
So there, hope you feel better about life!
And what would “something useful” of our time be in your opinion, Jeff?
Something like…… impregnating a cow and dragging it to delivery her calf in front of a crowd at a fair? Hm yeah. Not my idea of something useful, thanks.
And it’s very interesting to me that people opposing this kind of abuse would be the ones you consider crazy. Because the whole incident and the way it was handled certainly are not my idea of something sane.
Jeff – the HSUS is holding a protest tonight from 6 to 8PM if you’d like to attend:
Cal Expo – Main gate (on sidewalk along Exposition Blvd)
1600 Exposition Blvd
Sacramento, CA
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140633725960119&ref=mf
Just sayin’.
Shame on you Ca. state fair, you can’t tell me that no one knew how to handle a rope.
You idiots chased a pregnant cow that was irritated from being chased by an suv. Who hired unprofessions that didn’t know how to use a tranquilizer gun. What you’er telling the public it’s the only way to perform animal abortion is to shoot the animal in the stomach and kill the baby. I suppose you had it slaughtererd cook and sell them meat to fair goers, and don’t forget the calf. that’s choice cut.
Remember pregnant Mothers out there, if you become agitated by being chased by these so called suv drivers, you may be next. they were too lazy and stupidly stupid to calm the animal down by a little leg work, they decided to kill.
People who abuse animals will also commit crimes against humans.
Thanks police, you finally got some target practice in.
Besides the fact that the cow should have never been shot, obviously. People still actually go to fairs? So many things to boycott…so little time.
As everyone knows, a pregnant cow is a “she,” but in the video, state fair GM Brian May calls her an “it.”
For one thing, get your facts straight.
Brian May is the ASSistant General Manager (Norbert BARtoSIK is the GM)
And as everyone should know by now, he’s also an idiot.
Always has been.
Always will be.