Today I met a family from Birmingham, England and the kids were fascinated by a herd of cows in a field. It turns out they'd never seen a real cow up close. Even odder until this week they hadn't even seen one from a car. These weren't infants, they were at least 10 years old and I couldn't help thinking what shitty parents they must have, never taking their kids out of the city. More importantly it's made me think how many people out there have never seen a cow in real life.
I see them almost daily. I live roughly 35 miles from San Francisco, in the suburbs, but there are plenty of ranches in the area, including one that owns a piece of land that butts up against a road that I use nearly every day. When I walk the dog, I often have them less than 10 feet away, grazing along the fence.
I don't see horses all that often near my house, but I pass by horse ranches that are 5 miles away on occasion, and I also know where to find sheep, llamas, goats, and a few other farm animals fairly nearby. A couple of those ranchers are my customers. So, it's hardly uncommon for me to see them, though I don't get within touching distance regularly.
And, purely coincidentally, one of my customers had a power outage and as a result had an equipment failure, so I had to take the road past the horse ranches today. One of the ranches has added alpacas (which I've seen around before) and ostriches (which I hadn't). So I can add those to my list. Many of these rural places also have chickens as well.
The one common farm animal that I don't think I've seen around me is bacon - er, I mean, pigs or hogs. Not sure why, but there's probably a good reason.
That's a really cool bull in the photo. I love those highland cattle.
When I was little, there were lots dairies very nearby. My friends and I would walk a short distance to watch cows being milked. Over the years, they got bought out by housing developers. One of my best friend's family back then owned a dairy. I've had lots of encounters with cattle in my life. I also have relatives in Wisconsin who are farmers and milk producers.
One cool thing was going to an annual festival in the historic part of Folsom, Ca. a couple years in a row to watch old fashioned Western cowboys herd long-horn cattle down the street.
I lived in Texas for a few years and seen them all the time free ranging and would have to wait for them to cross the road. Which wad sooo annoying. Also have been to some farms. I kind of hate cows tho I have a little fear of them 😅
Even as a good parent it can be difficult to remember what you have witnessed but your children haven't. Busy with work and other fundamentals, enriching their life sometimes comes as a cost. If they recognize a cow from a picture, not seeing or smelling one in person can be thought of as not as important.
Imagine all the small towns around the world without a large water source meaning that children never learn to swim.
My mother taught at a primary school (after her test pilot career ground to a halt when she had my sister), and even in the small rural village many children hadn't touched a lamb. (We took in orphan lambs and bottle-fed them; she took some into school with her.)
During my tour of Scotland a few years ago, I made friends with a Hairy Coo, who came right up to the fence and begged to be petted, which I readily obliged.
What a shame 'twould be for one to be raised entirely in the putrid heart of a city, without the glory of nature seen. When I go on walks I sometimes come quite close to cows, just separated by a wire fence. They stare balefully at me as a walk by, not even muttering amongst themselves. They have their own charm.
I have seen many thousands of cows, maybe even more. Driving on interstate highways we often pass through farmland and see them all over there. And they are at state and county fairs. And of course at dairies. Cows, cows, everywhere cows!
I've done more then see them I've touched them. I lived around a lot of farm land as a child so most of my time was spent outdoors with everything nature has to offer.
I've seen this before we too. Someone drove up and asked to see our cows. They weren't ours. Just in a field next to us. They had family visiting that has never seen cows irl. Whhaaaaatt?
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