once the cowherds
flourished – now a days, not many buy milk direct from them – now they are a
vanishing tribe .. there are still cows – they inject and milk them .. then let
them roam on the street feeding on vegetables, trash and more … sometimes they
thrash the cows with sticks … one would feel sad upon seeing cows running
helter-skelter in fear – clear they do not get the right feed, do not get to
have their usual life, artificially inseminated, male-calf killed or take away
– as long as they give milk, some care – and then let loose when felt of no
use…. For identifying the farm animals they brand them with hot iron, and in
the name of Insurance, they pierce their ears with tags.. !!
Still this post
in Daily Mail titled ‘Hole-y cow!’ - How
farmers are monitoring what cows eat using 'window' in their sides … made me
feel sick.
Away in Europe
and advanced countries, farmers have a
wealth of technology and data at their fingertips to get the best from
livestock, but one old-fashioned technique still remains. Researchers in Switzerland
have fitted 14 cows with cannulas in their sides, that are cut directly into
the animal’s digestive tract. The 8-inch (20cm) holes allow farmers to directly
see how food is being processed, and are plugged using rubber stoppers when not
being used. The cannula acts like a porthole and gives direct access to the
cow’s rumen. Once the cannula is surgically placed in the cow, the animals
grazes for a set period of time before being examined. Farmers remove the plug
and pull the grass and oat mixture from the rumen. This material is collected
and tested and this analysis shows farmers and researches which forages get the
best results from the livestock, based on how much is digested.
The practice is said to
have become common place in the 1920s but reports of cows being used in this
way for scientific research date back to 1833. Cows with cannulas fitted are
also known as fistulated cows.
Agroscope, in Grangeneuve,
Switzerland
uses the cannulated cows to test the digestion of different, experimental
blends of oats to create a more balanced feed for the animals.
A cannula (from Latin
"little reed"; plural cannulae) or canula is a tube that can be
inserted into the body, often for the delivery or removal of fluid or for the
gathering of data. In simple terms, a cannula can surround the inner or outer
surfaces of a trocar needle thus extending needle approach to a vein by half or
more of the length of the introducer. A
cannulated cow can be referred to a cow that has been surgically fitted with a
cannula.
Researchers
claim the process can help the environment by improving the energy efficiency
of cows, which in turn reduces the amount of methane they produce. The cows are
anaesthetised during the surgical procedure and are said to experience no pain
when being examined. But animal rights campaigners claim it is abuse…. What
else it is ?!?!? - certainly cruel and
barbaric – imagine the pain and discomfort…. Will they dare to try it on
fellow-humans / themselves ? ~ often,
mankind inflicts unimaginable suffering on animals in the name of research and
test … who will fight this tremendous injustice to animals.. It is not hol(e)y Cow … it is
whole-heartedly cruel ruthless humans.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar. canulated cow photos taken from web ... picture credit to its original owners.
