You Did It

Abhay, the ox, got stuck in a hay ring. Trying to get loose from the hay ring, Abhay separated the ring from the round bale of hay that was in it. Thank God, Abhay is a calm ox, patient, and trusting. We never had a cow or ox get caught in a hay ring, so we tried different tools to cut the hay ring to free him. After four hours, our attempts were failing, and then our neighbors, Mac and Alexis Macaulay of Misty Morning Hounds, were able to cut Abhay loose with a diamond cable hackshaw. Abhay took the event calmly. Later, Abhay demonstrated the correct way to eat hay out of a hay ring.  Lakshmi, our daughter, and mother of Balaji and Bhima, is the main cowherd involved with Abhay through his four-hour ordeal.

ISCOWP News

You did it! You matched $50,000, meeting the two Matching Gift Challenges!  We at ISCOWP don’t know how to thank you sufficiently. Friends like you are a blessing, and we feel humbled by your trust. For 30 years, you have been by our side, helping to protect cows and spread the word and knowledge of cow protection. Without you, it would not have been possible. We are eternally grateful to you! Thank you again and again and again!

In honor of ISCOWP’s 30th anniversary, we are posting photos from the past. Nara and Narayana were living in tiny hutches on a dairy farm in Ohio. They were headed to the slaughterhouse if we hadn’t arrived at the dairy to take them home. Male calves usually end up in a veal factory or slaughtered since they can not produce milk for the dairy farmer. Now Nara and Narayana live happily at ISCOWP due to your help. Take a look at the photo below to see how much Narayana has grown.

About Cows

“Often associated with slow movement and, by extension, dull minds, cows are actually quick learners with great memories. The rapidity of an animal’s ability to learn is one measure of her intelligence, and cows can respond appropriately to the sound of an alarm after only seven trials.⁹ Further, cows remember what they learn, another indication of their cognitive abilities. They can recall the location of food for at least six weeks.¹⁰ Cows also remember one another as individuals, an important social capacity discussed below. The highly suggestive current findings about cow cognition suggest that future studies have much to uncover about their ability to learn and remember.” Thinking Cows: A Review of Cognition, Emotion, and the Social lives of Domestic Cows, By Christina M. Colvin, Kristin Allen, and Lori Marino

About the Meat and Dairy Industries

According to Our World in Data website, the Earth’s surface is 29% land and 71% Ocean, with 71% of the land habitable. Agriculture uses 50% of the habitable land. The meat and dairy industries use 77% of the agricultural land, including grazing land for animals and arable land used for animal feed production. Crops use 23 % of the agricultural land and provide 82 % of the global calorie supply, while the 77% dedicated to meat and dairy supplies only 18% of the global calorie supply. 37% of the global protein supply is from meat and dairy, and 63% is from plant-based food.

From this study conducted in 2019, we can understand that humans are using most of the world’s agricultural lands to produce meat and dairy, which only produces 18% of the global calorie supply and 37% of the global protein supply! The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, FAO, provides more detailed data that confirms Our World in Data information.

Our blessings from the ISCOWP staff for a spiritually uplifting holiday season and New Year! All of you have our heartfelt prayers for your good health, safety, happiness, and joy. Together, may we vigorously push on the cause of cow protection in the coming year.