Heartbreaking Story of a Mother Cow

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spencelo said:
I wanted to share the following story and hope skeptics will read it with an open mind. My intent here isn’t to argue with anyone, and so I will not do so (being mindful of the forum rules).
"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."

globalanimal.org/2012/04/13/cow-proves-animals-love-think-and-act/71867/
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I prefer the true story of the calves hanging out together and they all get excited when the farmer’s wife comes out to feed them, while their mothers have forgotten all about them.
 
spencelo said:
The weak and most vulnerable among us must be protected. After all, isn’t that what Christianity is all about?
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So are you anti-abortion now? :confused:

I need to know!

I’m sure many of us have been praying for you.:highprayer::crossrc::gopray2::harp::getholy:
 
spencelo said:
"I would like to tell you a story that is as true as it is heartbreaking.
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True as long as he states facts not when he makes conclusions. His statement that it is heartbreaking is a conclusion. Others can and do arrive at other conclusions.
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.
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I had a cat that brought four of her six kittens to us. Does that mean she was hiding the other two from us? More than likely the calf didn’t follow the cow to the barn as her other calf did. It strikes me odd to say that th calf was delivered naturally. Another attempt I suspect of connecting this with a human birth.
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,”
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This is pure speculation and applying human feelings on an animal.
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.
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Hidden is a conclusion. I can come to the conclusion that the calf didn’t follow her and when she was let out of the barn took care of the wayward calf.
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).
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What was the thought process is pure conjecture. It is only his thoughts that she exhibited memory. What is complex is attributing human behavior on an animal. How does he know that she was remembering other than his own imagining.
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.
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This is a conclusion do to his attributing human behavior to an animal.
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."
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.
She knows nothing. She is placing her experience as if that is what the cow was experiencing. Personification does harm to animals.

There is a lot of holes in this story.

That a cow would have all the milk drained by a calf goes against nature. Just think she was suppose to have twins that means she should have been producing enough for two. Yet she was totally dry. Anyone who has nursed knows this is a fiction.
"I would like to tell you a story
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Yep as true as Da Vinci Code:rolleyes:
 
spencelo said:
I wanted to share the following story and hope skeptics will read it with an open mind. My intent here isn’t to argue with anyone, and so I will not do so (being mindful of the forum rules).
"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
Gremained 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."

globalanimal.org/2012/04/13/cow-proves-animals-love-think-and-act/71867/
Click to expand...
“all creatures,great and small…the Good Lord made them all” 😉 A precious story.
 
spencelo said:
I wish more people understood it this way.
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So you are a deist now too, as well as being anti-abortion! You would like more people to understand that God made everything? Good for you!👍

Of course the Lord God made them all: then he gave man dominion over the animals and the livestock.

And he gave us thumbs and fingers so we could use knives and forks in order to cook and eat them!
 
Stephen168 said:
you big city yokels are so gullible. If you ever have the opportunity to raise farm animals, you will learn.
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THIS. (thank you Stephen!)

It’s why I said it’s fairy tale. I grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio.

Sweet story, not a chance that it’s true.
 
spencelo said:
If you did, would that change anything for you?
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:rotfl: No it wouod not. God gave me the wrong for eating just veggies. 😃 I also like to eat fluffy, little, just weaned bunnies. : What an alwful person I am! :rolleyes: D
 
spencelo said:
If it is, would that change anything for you?
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If it is just a fairy tale would it change anything for me?

No.

I felt it was a sweet story before, I still think it is.

Just like I think Finding Nemo is a sweet story.

No change.
 
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