Feline Warrior

Well, not really. Probably. Or… not that I’m aware of. Mostly.

Today I heard a story that was told to demonstrate that animals are not dumb, which we already knew. Anyway, I will now share the story with you, but urge you to please set aside your cheeseburger as it may seem somewhat lumpy after the story.

The story takes place in a farming community, and a young girl in 4H who got attached to her black angus cow. She and the cow, who had a name like Jim (a human sort of name and here Jim will suffice), bonded during the process of her raising the cow from a little cow. A cowlette. Or calf, perhaps, would be the word to use.

ANYWAY, the girl went along with Jim to the slaughterhouse. Why in God’s name she did that is beyond me. I interrupted the storyteller at this point to ask, “And thus began her life as a vegetarian?” but apparently that was not part of the story. (Should have been.)

So Jim is in the pen with all the other cows, milling about, probably not knowing -but maybe knowing!- what is in store. And as she turns to leave, the girl calls out, “Bye, Jim!” and Jim comes RUNNING over to the fence where she is. Of course she had to go, leaving Jim there. But Christ Almighty, what is up with that? I would never be able to eat beef again, forever, if I was that girl.

So the point of the story, in terms of animals not being dumb, is that (a) Jim knew his name; (b) Jim recognized the girl’s voice; and (c) Jim wanted the hell outta dodge. He ran to the fence! Ran to see his girl!

Apparently 4H kids can deal with that sort of thing. The girl of our story wasn’t emotionally tainted, eats beef to this day (I guess) and probably continued to take cows to slaughter. Ick.

I’ve seen enough Wallace and Gromit (and other fabulous Nick Park/Aardman productions) to know that animals are VERY intelligent, creative and productive members of society… and yet… I still eat some of them.

*sigh*