Save the cowsKrishna loves the cows, in fact,Govinda means the one who protects the cows and the brahminas. Cows are gentle creatures. They rarely cause any trouble, unless they are frightened. Cows are rather interesting creatures in that they are ruminants. Ruminants are animals that have four stomachs, one of which is called the rumen,  hence the name ruminants.
Inside the rumen live bacteria that don't hurt the cow, in fact, they assist the cows by breaking down the cellulose that encases the cells of grass. Humans and any other creatures that do not posess a rumen find it extremely difficult to digest grass. Horses don't have four stomachs but get around grass munching by having a very long gut, and as the grass moves slowly through, they can digest a fair bit of it. See picture by clicking here Cows are very friendly animals and, because of this have been domesticated, as they are very desirable animals to have since they produce large quantities of milk which can be made into many different food products such as cheese, yoghurt, butter and ghee. Unfortunately, because grass grows so abundantly and freely on this planet and it is easier to grow than most plants that are edible for humans, it is common to find that people eat cows, as well as many other animals that eat grass. Usually vegetarian animals are easy to manage as they are not aggressive (rowdy or troublesome). Sadly, this is the "easy" way out, since people believe that being wealthy is more important than being kind. As we know, it is relatively easy to make money out of breeding cows for sale. In this material world calamity and other problems occur with monotonous regularity so people are afraid that if they lack wealth they will be unprotected from calamity and other distress. This may be considered true within some materially motivated logic for ordinary people, although wealth never yet prevented anyone's suffering, but devotees are protected by Lord Sri Krsna and have no fear of not acquiring sufficient wealth. So, for us, cow killing (any animal killing) is out of the question. Protecting animalsAll animals, including cows,should be protected from exploitation. If anyone is cruel to a dog or a cat the RSPCA jumps down their throat and the cruel person is fined or imprisoned, yet, because many people have developed a taste for eating beef (as they call the flesh of cows) and there is a lucrative industry centred around this "taste"; it will be a tad short  of impossible to outlaw cow slaughter.Click for more info on this topic. So those people who kill, cook, eat, or otherwise deal in cow killing will suffer the karma of themselves being slaughtered in future incarnations ... whether they believe it or not; just as a young and ignorant toddler thinks that fire will be nice to touch, they must learn the hard way ... by suffering. The nice cows in the above picture are innocent animals, but they were probably humans in a former life, enjoying their Sunday roasts, as these cows are cattle that are bred specifically for meat production. Many animals, cows, sheep, chickens and pigs, to name some, are bred as table breeds. Many, many people in this world don't even believe that there is a God, despite the fact that the vastness and complexity of the little documented and barely understood "known" universe that engulfs us speaks amply of its creation, not as random event but, by an intelligence far beyond the abilities of our extremely limited, finite cognizance. Given this, they act whimisically as their minds dictate to them, completely disregarding the laws of our creator. Unfortunately, the cows are on the receiving end of this gross ignorance. One wonders as to the mental condition of the first person ever to eat meat. MothersCows, especially dairy cows are consideredone of our mothers,  since they give us milk. In fact, many babiesin the western world never taste their own mother's milk, and grow up drinking no other milk but cows milk. It is not difficult to understand why Krishna has a special fondness for these warm hearted, friendly and gentle animals. 
If you wish to know more about cows and cattle please click on this link to the Wikipedia, a free, online encyclopedia, worth its weight in pure gold. Gentle GiantsThis picture of the little child playingwith the cow, and it's a beef breed (a Hereford or Hereford cross) and not a dairy cow; this is significant as dairy cows are used to being handled by human beings on a daily basis, whereas beef breeds do not have anything like this amount of human contact. This shows that the gentle nature of cows (by cows, I mean bovines in general) is inherent in cows and not something that they learn. Yes, cows can be frightened and become reactive because of this but the same can be said of human beings; we are not in the habit of killing and eating humans. I remember one time when I was in Bhubaneswar, India and I decided to buy some things at the local "shopping centre" called the CRP (no idea what it stands for). Anyway, I strolled a little way down the main road that links the CRP to the main area of Bhubaneswar city and came across one little fruit and vegie stall; merely a table covered with vegies. A small girl about 5 or 6 years old had been left to look after the stall (briefly, I hope) and this rather large bull with rather large horns had come by and decided that this looked nice to eat and was busily indulging whilst the little girl sat terrified. I must admit that I also felt some apprehension when I looked at the size of the bull and at the size of the nicely sharpened horns, but nevertheless determined to chase him away. Not knowing exactly what to do, I walked up to him and said something like "YAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" and simultaneously pushed his head away. Much to my surprise, he decided that discretion was the better part of valour and took off at the rate of knots across the road. The little girl was thus saved from this "evil monster" (the bull, not me). It showed me that bulls and cows, despite their size are not aggressive to humans, and often enough dairy cows are content to let people hug them and stroke them just like pets, in fact they often are pets, and they all know their respective names in a small family run dairy where the kids' chores include milking the cows. To demonstrate this point; I recall when Achutananda prabhu and I went on a day trip to Puri to see You Know Who; we arrived down on the beach about 1PM when everything was closed and everyone was napping, so decided to nap out ourselves. It was VERY hot and the only shade was in the shadow of this massive big bull lying on the sand.( Needless to say, by this time I was feeling more confident about being in close proximity to large bulls) He looked at us as we lay down beside him and we drifted off to sleep (easy to do an a hot Puri arvi)The bull took no further notice of us. Later on I awakened because sand was blowing in my face. The sand was not due to a breeze but due to the bull snorting as his head was right next to mine. He looked angry. I wondered what we might have done to upset him. I looked at Achutananda who was blissfully slumbering, and looked further afield and saw the cause of the bull's aggression; not towards us but because of another large bull who had wandered into the first bull's territory. I woke up Achutananda and we moved along, just in case there was a skirmish, which I doubt, but this time although we were under no actual threat, it was my turn to decide that discretion was the better part of valour. All in all, over the 55 years of my life, I have had a fair bit to do with cows, mostly dairy cows, and feel that one would be hard pressed to find another animal that is as gentle. |
All about ruminantsBelow is an article, from the Texas Parks and Wildlife (Dep't), concerning bison, which are also ruminants.
Bison eat and digest their food in a very unique way. They like to eat prairie grasses, and they have special teeth on their lower jaw that helps them clip off the grass. Bison eat grass by wrapping their tongue around it and pinching it off between their tongues and lower teeth. They swallow their food practically whole. Bison are ruminants. Ruminants have stomachs made up of four compartments which help them digest food. When eaten, food is first stored in the rumen, the first compartment of the stomach. Some food goes directly to the second compartment which is the reticulum. Eventually, all the food goes to the second compartment, the reticulum. Here stomach juices and bacteria begin to break food down and form it into cud. When the bison are resting, muscles in the reticulum push the cud back up into bison's mouth. There the cud is chewed and mixed with more saliva. Then the cud is swallowed again to be further digested. It passes through the rumen, the reticulum, and into the omasum, which is the third compartment of the bison's stomach. The cud is further digested there. The final stop is the abomasum, the last of the compartments. Here, cud is combined with stomach juices before passing into the intestines. Why does it take four stomachs? The grasses, forbs (weeds), and browse (woody plants), are very tough and hard to break down. The bison's ability to use many different plant foods makes it a survivor when food (forage) is scarce. The drawing below shows the chambers of a cows stomach, including the rumen. See how big the rumen is when compared to the size of the other three stomachs. 
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The drawing above shows the difference between the structure of a ruminants stomach and that of a horse. We can see how the horse's intestine is extremely long. Click to return to textTop of the page More about CowsThe Jersey cow originates from the Channel Islands but now hasworldwide distribution. It is one of the many cattle breeds raised for its milk, which is particularly rich in butterfat. It has less beef value because of its small size and lack of muscular development. (The above text is what the Encarta encyclopedia says when searched for cows.) "Jersey Cows", Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2001. © 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. A search in Encarta for "Cattle" yeilds this entire page. Click to return to textTop of the page |
| Jaya Surabhi matajis. |