15 July 2013

Udderly despicable

Some farmers in England are suspected of using superglue to seal cows' udders closed:
The results of the dairy cattle competitions have been suspended after vets carrying out ultrasound scans on two cows’ udders found anomalies which must be analysed to verify whether cheating has taken place. 
Size and shape, it seems, are everything when it comes to a prize dairy cow’s udder, and farmers are suspected of either using superglue to block up teats, making the udders fill up, or inflating them with air...

...it is in the lucrative world of breeding that owners stand to make serious gains if they can boast a prize-winning dairy cow.  Farmers can sometimes double the amount they charge for ampoules of semen from the bull which fathered the winning cow. With each bull producing more than a thousand shots of semen at up to £50 each, a farmer could gain as much as £25,000.

3 comments:

  1. That's disgusting. Imagine the pain those poor cows felt. I would suspect that using glue would permanently damage the teats. I would hope that people doing this could be prosecuted for cruelty to animals. And I would think that once the people are identified, animals they market would always be suspect.

    I thought the value of dairy cows was more related to the amount of milk produced and the fat content of the milk. How does size and shape affect this?

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  2. As a mother who has breastfed. The extreme PAIN you get with a blocked duct is unbearable! I agree with Cathy M, I hope these people are charged with cruelty to animals.

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  3. There is something wrong with the human genome. We are the worst of all of the creatures.

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