The Times [UK] has an article all about the growing popularity of mini-cows. And anyone who eats meat and milk, and owns a couple spare acres, might be excited by the article’s description:
For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass “mown” and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.
It’s weird to see this phrased so directly: how many homeowners could really keep an animal as a pet, and then send her to the slaughterhouse? I bet lots of these cows end up living out their full lives because their owners find out they don’t have the heart to have the animal killed and butchered.
In any event, the value proposition isn’t nearly as good as what The Times states. Obviously, you’ll be forced to buy a female calf if you want milk (and what happens to all the males?) Additionally, as with commercial dairy cows, the females will have to be kept almost constantly pregnant in order for milk yields to remain high. And that means that every year or so, you’re forced to find a home for a newborn calf — unless you’re OK with selling the animal to a veal farm.
Finally — and this is huge — what homeowner really wants to wake up early every single morning to milk the cow? It would be nice if the article bothered to mention that buying one of these animals will torpedo your ability to go on vacation for years to come. Suddenly those glasses of milk are coming at a very high price.
The tragedy is that this article will no doubt convince many people to purchase one of these animals, and they’ll soon prove unable to meet their cow’s milking schedule and veterinary needs. Animal neglect can be as dreadful as animal cruelty. Link.
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