Tuesday, April 25, 2017
No Respect
These fine photos of a cow giving birth are by John L Moore of (near) Miles City, rancher and novelist. If they were of antelope, they would probably be on the cover of a magazine, but domestic animals get no respect. Johnson and Janiga, the authors of the magisterial Superdove, on feral pigeons, say they were actively discouraged from writing about them.
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9 comments:
Consider that some Aurochs decided to make the most of their quirks and have domesticated a former predator, who is now tending to them, guarding them, feeding them, growing food especially for them, a docile servant who destroys whole ecosystems on planet wide scale to give them more space, and allows their numbers to grow in Darwinian success. Now they want us to like them and sing their praise, and not just work for them? I see corporate culture is making inroads in biology...
Federico- Wow, you're right! They are the Eloi and we are their Morlocks...
A point, Federico, but only about cows. Domestic and feral animals really are neglected by pure science, as opposed to agriculture schools. Johnson and Janiga were strongly pressured against working with feral pigeons before they produced their wonderful monograph; Katrina van Grouw was pressured not to use domestic birds in her fit book, The Unfeathered Bird Being Katrina, she has now written an entire book on revery domestic mammal and bird you could think of.
These are wonderful cow photos, even if you don't like them, and even if
you REALLY don't like them, you must surely concur that scientific knowledge of the domestic aurochs is needed.
I hate it that editors and publishers are always second-guessing reporters and on-the-ground writers. They destroy the reality of the firsthand observers with their stuck-up prejudices.
Prairie Mary
MARY! It has been far too long. What is new with you?
Thank you so much for these photographs of a typical cow doing one of the things she does best, taking care of the next generation. I'm going to try to figure out how to link this to my own page--or maybe one of you could do it since I'm technologically deficient-- because I would love to point out the care and concern with which she acts. Sure, wild mothers do this too, but we eat a lot more of the domestic ones, and there is so much complete IGNORANCE about cattle that I like to educate people as much as I can.
And hello, Steve-- it's been a long time since we crossed paths. Glad to know you are still kicking.
I don't think many people think about cattle as being really amazing creatures. They exist as domestic animals or feral domestics only because the wild ancestor is long since extinct. Both species of bison exist as relics compared to what they once were, but the domestic cattle species exists in vast throngs of which nothing else with hooves can compare.
Wonderful series of pics! Thanks.
I don't know... how can anyone NOT see the beauty in cows? They are beautiful animals, all the way down to what they end up as, on our table. They are funny creatures -more than a little dangerous though and I like to keep a fence between me and them- with quite some brain it seems, gorgeous eyes and the most magnificient skin-fur combination I have yet seen.
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