Cows - Benevolent and Intelligent Beings

Maneka Sanjay Gandhi says that cows are highly intelligent, social, and compassionate creatures who can be friends for life with human beings. Every animal needs the congenial company of its own species and a cow needs to be allowed to enjoy her ‘rights’ in her own way and not according to a human timetable.

- Maneka Sanjay Gandhi

Rosamund Young has written a book called The Secret Life of Cows which, surprisingly for a book on animals, has shot to the Top Ten bestseller list of The Sunday Times. It is a very sweet small book about the animals she has brought up and interacted with, especially cows, in her Kitt’s Nest farm in England. She has treated them with kindness and consideration, and kept them in as natural conditions as possible. And she has been rewarded with watching an entire other world of innocence and love, play, and happiness. She knows all of them by name and describes their personalities.

Rosamund describes her relationship with each cow. ‘Cows are as varied as people,’ she writes. ‘They can be highly intelligent or slow to understand, vain, considerate, proud, shy or inventive. Although much of a cow’s day is spent eating, they always find time for activities such as baby sitting, playing hide and seek, looking for berries.’ They look for happiness in the warmth of their own families. Grandmothers step in when mothers need a break from feeding, calves make best friends and share treats, cows literally jump in the air—all four feet—when happy and excited. Rosamund describes how cows in trouble come to her or her brother at their house and tell them when they are about to calve or when they are not feeling well so that they can be helped. They know their own names and come from far when called. They stare when they want something, looking from you to the object they want you to see till you understand.