Here is some wonderful research from a guy named. Brad!
mrcranky.com
05/10/03: Herbivores can and will eat meat
Posted By: cville
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I have decided to write this lengthy article because of all the confusion that exists on the subject. I have been doing research into this area of study for the past two years. My findings have shattered myths and shocked me to the core as well. Yet, even with all the proof and documented facts, you will still find farmers and scientists who will say that herbivores either don't, won't or can't eat meat.
I'm not a scientist, doctor, animal specialist or a breeder of any animals. All that I have learned from interviewing a wide variety of sources and from the experiments I have conducted and been a part of have taught me a great deal. The only satisfaction in all of it for me is that I know what I have seen and experienced. When I share some of this information with you later in this article I guarantee that you will be prone to thinking that I must be the biggest liar in the history of the world. I can assure you this is not the case. I will put the truth out to you in this article and what you decide about what you read is entirely up to you. My intent in sharing this information has two goals. First, I want to provide facts that can clear up the many myths we have bought into believing over hundreds of years. Secondly, I want to hear from anyone who has a TRUE story to tell, hearsay about incidents related to this subject or if people have conducted any experiments along the lines of those I have conducted I would like to hear the results of these experiments.
HERE WE GO!
We are taught that animals fall into groups based on their diet. We learn that Carnivores eat meat, Herbivores eat plant matter and Omnivores have an equal love and ability to eat both plant matter and meat. I'm not saying this is wrong. What is wrong is when we take this information to be ABSOLUTE. Here is what I mean. We know that a lion is a carnivore and he is because the bulk of his diet is made up of meat. We also know that a lion will often eat grass and leaf material because he needs or wants to. This does not mean he has become a herbivore because he eats plant matter nor does it mean he has become an omnivore because we know he will eat both plant and animal matter. When science puts an animal in one of these groups they do so because they know that the bulk of the animals diet comes from that category classification. Our mistake, and even several scientists make this same mistake, is that we take these animal classifications too literally. I gave you the lion example from the carnivore group. Here is one from the ranks of the herbivores. Camels are called herbivores, yet they will eat dead animals and chew up the bones they often come across in the deserts where they live. Iguanas are classified as herbiverous lizards, yet they will eat birds or small animals given the opportunity. Those are just two of the best known examples. I have come to this conclusion. By nature, all animals are somewhat unpredictable and when we try and say that this animal will only eat this and this animal here would never eat this we are leaving out one word that is so important in the animal kingdom. That word is OPPORTUNITY. In my opinion science should temper the lessons of animal diet classification by saying that to one degree or another, ALL animals are opportunistic feeders even though they properly fall into their specific diet classifications.
The true carnivores are born with the instincts that drive them to kill their prey and feast on the flesh and blood. Herbivores are not born with this same instinct and this means they don't feel the desire to kill and eat something. What is interesting however is the fact that once they have tasted blood, they will desire it even if only once in a while. How often that once in a while becomes is based totally on OPPORTUNITY. The experiments I've conducted prove this beyond the shadow of any doubt and the easier the opportunity is, the more often they will take advantage of the opportunity they have. I've been called every name in the book because of my experiments and while I have stated that I'm not an educated scientist, I'am a realist. All the experiments I've conducted or been a part of have been designed to disprove the myths in the name of science and reality.
The other argument that is offered up when you talk about a herbivore eating meat is that their digestive systems won't allow them to consume meat or animal matter. Just like you and I, an animals body will tell him when and if he has had too much of a good thing. The animal might overdo it and will get a little sick in some way. Just like you and I, if the animal ignores the bodies warning and keeps overdoing something to excess, the result could even be death. You may have heard the old saying...."all things in moderation". Simply stated, we can survive doing or eating almost anything provided we don't overdo it in any one area. Well, the exact same thing is true in the animal kingdom.
I'm now going to share some of the experiments with you and I want to make it clear that we did not use any chemicals, medications or behavioral modification techniques. We did only what I tell you here exactly the way I tell you here. These experiments have also been costly from a financial perspective because I don't have any grants and I'm not at all rich by any standard. I've had to buy all of the feeder animals used with my own money. So far I do not feel like the money has been spent in a foolish manner.
Since farm animals are mostly herbivores and were the most available to me, we started with common, ordinary animals in an attempt to simply see what they would do. I was able to get the cooperation of several farmers and breeders. I told all of them that if any of the livestock dies as a result of anything we do, they will be paid full market value for the animal. That seemed to satisfy them.
SHEEP & GOATS
We all know sheep and goats to be cute and passive creatures who graze and forage around and we mostly view them as harmless. This is true about these animals but, they have another side to them as well. In this first experiment I used 1 male and two female goats.....1 male and 2 female sheep. I spent two evenings or a total of about six hours letting them get to know me and playing with them. Sheep and goats only have bottom teeth. In the upper jaw they only have hard gums and the roof of their mouths are very hardened. Make no mistake, either of these animals can deliver a nasty bite when they want to. On the second evening I laid down in the grass and stayed very still like I was playing dead. The six animals sniffed all around me, licked me but two of them bit me hard enough to bring some blood and they were just playing around. On the third evening I took 12 freshly killed lab mice in a bucket and went into the pen. I sat on a chair and played with all of them for a few minutes never letting them see into the bucket. Then, I took one mouse from the bucket and placed it flat in the palm of my hand. I held it down and five out of the six animals would only sniff at the mouse in my hand. Then, the male goat came over and sniffed the mouse. He then began licking the mouse with all of his family and friends looking on. Finally, he took it into his mouth and began to chew it in a playful kind of way. He must have finally bit down hard enough to cause the mouse to bleed. Once he tasted the blood his chewing became more vigerous and soon he swallowd the mouse. Some of the others came back up to me and I got out another mouse. Holding it flat in my hand again I put it down and one of the female sheep took the mouse in her mouth. The mouse turned sideways in her mouth and as she lowered her head she bit hard enough to cut the mouse into two pieces. The back half of the mouse fell out of her mouth on to the ground while she chewed and swallowed the front half. She then bent down and got the other half of the mouse and ate it right down. By evenings end each of the six animals had eaten two mice. Now, what was interesting was that all six of these animals knew I was getting the mice out of the bucket and I had never let them see into the bucket. There were no more mice left but all six of these animals were trying everything they could to get their heads into the bucket. I finally let them see into the bucket and sniff it. We were done. The following evening I wanted to see if they would eat a mouse that was alive. I went to the pen with a bucket that was a little deeper than the other one I used the night before and I had another container where 12 live mice were kept and only I could get to this container. I put one of the live mice in the bucket and all six of them remembered that they had liked what I had in the bucket. The first female sheep stuck her head into the bucket and the mouse jumped. This startled the sheep and she quickly pulled back. Next was one of the female goats and the result was exactly the same. Next was the male sheep. He stuck his head into the bucket and was able to grab the mouse. I counted and the sheep went through 12 chewing motions and swallowed the mouse down. Next came one of the female goats. She stuck her head into the bucket and when she caught her mouse she only had it by a hind leg. She began to walk away with it and the male goat came right up to her and snatched the mouse from her weak grip and at the mouse right down. By the end of the night all of them had each eaten two live mice. With what I had done so far I had established that goats and sheep would eat another animal or meat. The second night proved they would kill something live and eat it. I skipped going out for a couple of days and when I went back I had decided they could easily eat something larger so I took six live and two freshly killed lab rats with me. After re-establishing myself with them I just threw the two dead rats out on to the grass. These six cute and furry friends all went for the rats and tempers flared. There was a funny tug of war between a female sheep and the male goat. The goat had the front half of the rat in his mouth and the sheep had the back half in her jaws. They were making noises and pulling till finally the rat came apart and they each took their half chewing it vigorously as they each walked away in different direction. A few of the six didn't even get a taste of the first two rats and they were mad as you could easily tell. At this point I knew they wanted the rats but I wanted to see if they wanted them enough to work at getting them instead of me letting them reach into the bucket. One by one I took each of the six animals inside to an enclosure that measured 15 x 15 feet and was closed in on the bottom all around. This way I could release a rat on the floor and see if the goat or sheep would go after it. I began with the male goat. I took him in the pen with me and I made sure that he could see what I took out of the box. I put the rat on the floor and released it. At first the goat just watched the rat moving around and exploring the surroundings. The goat then moved toward the rat and the rat ran to the outer reaches of the enclosure. The goat lowered his head a little and slowly moved toward the rat in a stalking fashion. Finally, the goat moved toward the wall and when the rat went to cut back to the inside the goat was right there and grabbed him up in his mouth. He had the rat crossways in his mouth and was holding it by the neck, head and shoulder area. The more the rat squeeked the more the goat would bite down. Soon the rat was dead and the goat dropped it to the floor. Then the goat opened its mouth and grabbed the rat in its mouth head first. The goat had intended to eat the rat like he had eaten the mice by just continuing to chew as he took them deeper in his mouth until they were swallowed. The goat had the rat about half way back in his mouth and was trying to chew it for all he was worth however, the goat quickly realized that the rat was too large to swallow. The goat then dropped the rat back on to the floor. He sniffed all around it then he put his front hoof on part of the rat and he bit into the soft belly area and tore the rat open. The goat instantly reacted to the blood be starting to bite and tear at a fever pitch. In about two minutes the goat had eaten all the guts and soft tissue. He re-positioned himself and again using his front hoof he stepped on part of the rat and bit into one of the back legs. He soon had torn the leg off, chewed it and swallowed. It took about 15 minutes but the goat had ate every bit of the rat and there was nothing left but a blood stain which the goat kept licking. Next was one of the two female sheep. I did the same thing and for a few minutes the sheep did't seem to have a clue about what was going on. Every time she would walk toward the rat, the rat would move farther away. The rat finally made its way to the corner of the enclosure and when the sheep got real close with her head the rat tried to jump up the wall. The sheep literally snatched the rat out of mid air. She had it by the head and the rat was kicking its feet and squeeling. The sheep started to shake the rat around but it was still kicking. This sequence went on for about 45 seconds and then the sheep must have been tired of messing around. She bit down hard and actually bit the head completely off the rat. The head stayed in her mouth as she chewed and swallowed and the rats body fell to the floor. After swallowing the head the sheep kind of tilted her head sideways as she went to bite the rat and she bit off one of the hind quarters of the rat. She did this with both the back and front legs and now there was a headless and leggless body laying on the floor. Unlike the goat she took a differnt approach. She picked up the body from the front where the head once was and took the body as far into her mouth as she could get it. She chewed and chewed and simply masticated the rat body. There were no juices, blood or anything left inside the rat body. Then she put it back on the ground and bit off pieces she could manage to chew and swallow. Her feast only took 11 minutes. Next was one of the female goats and she just couldn't figure out how to catch the rat. It took almost 20 minutes before she got it and it was funny because when she got it all she had in her mouth was the tail. The rat was hanging down to the side of her mouth. She just walked around the enclosure carrying the rat and holding the tail tight in her mouth. Soon she began shaking the rat and it flew out of her mouth, hit the wall and as it bounced off the wall she grabbed it out of the air. She had it by the soft belly area and as she lowered her head the applied the kill bite. She dropped the rat to the ground, tore it open and like the other two of the six, she left nothing behind. The other three all responded in similar fashion. The next night I wanted to try something else so I went to a local fish hatchery and bought 18 seven inch bluegill (fish). I took the six animals back outside to the fenced yard and I threw the live fish into the grass and they were flopping around like crazy. Each of the six animals ate three fish and just like with the rats, they ate everything. Right after we finished with the fish I had a good sized bucket full of clean washed live earthworms. I dumped the worms out on the ground and all six of the animals dove in chewing and swallowing. The six of them at just over ten pounds of worms. We had reached a point where it was clear that these 3 goats and the 3 sheep loved meat in addition to their regular diet. The next night I decided to try something that I really didn't think would work when we began. I had decided they did pretty well with the rats which were much larger than the mice which they had eaten like finger food. I wondered if they would try to kill an animal that was much larger than a rat and in fact, very close to their own size. I called around and found a farmer that had a veal calf that had gotten injured and would most likely die in a couple of days. I bought the calf from him and took it to the other farm. The problem was that this veal calf was actually larger than all of my six animals. But, I thought what the heck. I put the calf in the same outside pen where the six animals were used to being and I let all six of them in with the calf. They were all just walking around and nibbling the grass just like the calf was doing. This was going on for nearly an hour and I was almost ready to call it a night. Then I noticed that all six of the sheep and goats were sniffing the calf at a different point and they actually had circled around the calf. They kept moving in closer sniffing and then licking the calf. Suddenly the large male goat reached in from under the calfs head and bit into its throat hard. This seemed to trigger some kind of reflex in the other five animals as they all bit into whatever part of the calf they were closest to. The calf fell over on to its side and while the big male goat held on to its throat the other five all started biting into the belly region. The calf was bawling and at least one of the five who were biting the belly were able to break through the skin. It reminded me of a pack of wolves attacking a deer. The five kept biting and tearing and the big male goat that had been holding fast to one spot on the throat finally let that grip go and started repeatedly biting the throat of the calf. The calf was still alive and soon the five others had his soft belly area well opened and they were just biting, tearing and eating as they continued to gut the calf. The big male goat finally let go of the throat when the calfs movements slowed down and he went to the body cavity himself and began feasting. This calf was literally eaten alive and all six of the animals had red heads because of sticking their heads into the body cavity and getting blood all over them. It took about four hours of them gorging themselves and all that was left of the calf was the head, skeleton and hide. Nearly all the meat on the calf had been stripped off. I still visit these animals every couple of weeks and I take them different live treats and they seem to love it while at the same time they eat their normal diet.
HORSES
The sheep and goat experiments had gone better than I thought they would so I moved on to horses. Horses have a steady range of emotions that are usually intense. When they are spooked they really are scared and when they are either mad or when they think they can get away with it, they can get very aggressive and certainly dangerous due to their size. I tried freshly killed mice and rats on the horse and all it would do is sniff them. I was frustrated so I was ready to go to plan B when I began to notice that this horse liked eating his oats and treats out of this one particular bucket. The next night I took 15 live mice with me. I moved them from the box and into this big bucket the horse was used to. I took the bucket of mice into the stall and held the bucket so the horse could get down into it. He sniffed and sniffed then pulled his head out of the bucket and walked away. He just stood there looking at me as if to say to me, "okay, what do we do now?" Soon he walked back over and I was petting his neck. I had set the bucket down on the floor over near the wall. After a few minutes of my petting him he walked over to the bucket and just looked down into it. Then he stuck his nose down into it. When he raised his head up he had three mice in his mouth and he started chewing them up. Once he ate the first three he loved it and in less than seven minutes he had eaten all 15 mice and I could tell he would have liked more. The key with this horse was that he would not eat something that was already dead. Two days later I took more mice and this time he ate 35 of them in about 15 minutes. The following night I took six live rats to the farm. I think the horse knew what a rat was from living in a barn. I put one rat in the bucket and the horse stuck his head into the bucket and without hesitating took the rat into his mouth. The rat was dead in an instant and the horse bit the rat into three pieces which he chewed up and swallowed. He ate all six rats that night in the same fashion and he was lovin every minute of it. Three nights later I went back to the farm with two large rabbits. I really couldn't put them in the bucket so I moved the horse to a different stall where I thought I would release the rabbit and see what the horse would do. The breeder told me that the rabbit would most likely move quick and would spook the horse and that it would not work. At this point though, the breeder had seen the horse eat live animals that he also didn't think was possible. Anyway, I released the rabbit in with the horse and the breeder was partially correct. The horse did spook and he became very nervous and he never took his eye off of the rabbit. I was banking on the fact that the horse had tasted and liked blood and flesh and that this might eventually override his fear. This spook scene went on for about 20 minutes and the horse finally seemed to calm down a little. I watched as the horse lowered his head down near the rabbit and he was sniffing the air. Just then, the rabbit went to move and in a split second the horse grabbed the rabbit with his teeth. The horse had the rabbit by the back and the rabbit quickly squirmed and the horse dropped him on the floor. The rabbit was hurt a little and scared a lot and it just sat there. The horse lowered its head back down and appeared to be almost looking the rabbit right in the eye. All of a sudden the horse snapped its mouth open and took the rabbits head in his mouth. The rabbit was kicking and the horse spent about five minutes just walking around the stall with the rabbit hanging out of his mouth. The horse walked over to the hay manger and dropped the rabbit there. The rabbit was still kicking some and the horse decided he was ready to eat because he bit into the rabbits belly area so hard that he actually came away with a perfect bite of rabbit just like a human takes a bite out of an apple. Then, the horse picked up the dead rabbit and moved it to the floor. He put a hoof on the back legs of the dead rabbit, leaned his head down and took a huge bite that tore off one of the rabbits front legs. It took about 15 minutes for him to eat most of the rabbit leaving the head, some hide and bones. He did eat all four legs of the rabbit and all the insides. I went and got the second rabbit, brought it into the stall. I was holding it and suddenly before I could put the rabbit down the horse snapped his head forward and grabbed the rabbit right out of my hands. The horse had the rabbits hind quarter in his teeth and he began shaking the rabbit violently. The rabbits neck must have snapped because it was lifeless when the horse dropped it to the floor. Again the horse applied his hoof on the rabbit and this rabbit was consumed in just over 10 minutes. This horse had proven the same thing as the sheep and lambs so we went for the next step. One week later I went back to the farm with a 100 pound goat. We went to the corral where the horses always got their workouts. I released the goat then went to the barn and got the horse. I led him to the corral, opened the gate and took off his lunge line. He just ran around bucking and kicking up his heels in the outer portion of the corral while the goat just walked around in the center. This went on for about 10 minutes and finally the horse casually walked over to get a drink of water. Soon, the goat was at the water tub standing right beside the horse. The goat stood up on his hind legs and had his front legs on the edge of the large water tub. The goat leaned his head down and began to drink. The horse was just looking at the goat while it drank then the horse leaned his head down and drank a little more water. Then in a flash of a second the horse reached over and grabbed the goat by his throat. The horse trotted away and was raising his head up and down as he carried the goat around. This surprised me because even though horses have powerful neck muscles, this goat weighed just over 100 pounds. The goat was kicking and suddenly the horse trotted back over toward us and began shaking the goat with everything he had in him. The goat was still alive but he had stopped kicking so much and the horse would not let go. We got into the corral and walked toward the horse and he wouldn't let us get near him as he just continued to carry the goat around. This went on for eight minutes and finally the horse dropped to goat on the ground. The goat was still very much alive at this point but he was hurt. The horse stood over the goat and again we tried to approach and the horse ran toward us in anger and would not let us near the goat. The horse went back to the goat dropped his head down and took an actual bite of flesh out of the side of the goats neck. The goat was yelping and then the horse very carefully lowered his snout to a point right under the goats jaw where the jaw meets the neck. The horse bit in deep and hard and the goat yelped again. The horse is running around the corral just as before carrying the goat and we didn't realize it but the gate was ajar and the horse took off out the gate in a full gallop witht he goat and he ran over to the barn. We got there very quickly and we opened the horses stall and pasture gate so it could get back into its normal area. The horse made its way into this small pasture area near the barn and there were four other horses already in the little barn pasture. Our horse still kept his tight bite grip on the goats throat. He was standing there holding the goat when the other four horses came around and they were smelling the goat. One of the other horses sniffed the goat and ran off to a corner of the little pasture area and wouldn't move. Soon our horse dropped the goat to the grass and it was still moving a good bit. Shortly the biggest of all the horses which was actually a draft horse came over where the goat laid on the ground and he sniffed up and down the goat and the goat was bleeding some from the throat wound. All of a sudden just like we cued him or something, the big horse dropped his head and tore the entire throat out of the goat. Two other horses who had done nothing yet but sniff the goat came up and started licking up all the blood that was coming out of the goats throat. Both of them then took bites from the throat area and the other horse was still standing way over in the corner and not moving while our original horse was standing there looking on. Next, our horse picks the goat up by the throat again and walks around with it as the other three horses followed. Then, while our horse was standing there holding the goat in the air, the other 3 horses reached their heads in and bit into the belly of the goat. It was the big horse that bit deep enough and when he jerked his head the goats belly cavity opened up and exposed organs and intestines. The other two horses standing beside the big horse then reached in and bit into the intestines pulling them out and gutting the goat. Then our horse dropped the goat and along with the other three they all proceded to eat the goat. In one hour all that was left was the head, skeleton and hide. All the meat had been eaten off the bones. This was such a shock because these other horses that ended up getting involved had never been given any meat of any kind. Again, all I can say is that it has to be based on opportunity.
We experienced the same results with donkeys and mules and in nearly the same way. The only difference here is that both the donkeys and the mules seem to have a meaner disposition and when they would they tended to get messy because of the ripping and tearing they would engage in. They seemed to have almost an attack attitude when they were presented with the opportunity.
COWS
The cows by far took the longest time to catch on or really understand what was happening. I was working with five beef cattle that were all huge weighing over 1200 pounds each. It took six days before any of the cows would eat any of the mice dead or alive. On the fifth day I took fifty pounds of clean washed earthworms to the cows and when I dumped the worms in their feeding manger they really liked them and they ate them all. On the sixth day the cows seemed to be trusting me a little more which I think was the original problem. We started with the mice on the sixth day and this time we kept the cows away from their feeding manger. I made five piles of 20 mice in each pile. Once the mice had been placed the cows came in hungry and they each ate their pile of mice in short order. The next day I wanted to move to live mice but there was no way to let them loose in the feeding manger and expect them to sit still and wait to be eaten. The farmer had an idea. He had a 14 foot long feeding tub that was three feet deep that he used for special feeding needs in the bad winter months. He suggested I get all the mice I had and put them in this tub and if they cows didn't eat any or any they didn't eat would just have to be put back in the smaller transporting containers. At the time I had around 250 adult mice. So, I took them all out to the farm and we kept the cows away from the area we were doing this in which was outside. I stocked the tub with the mice and they were running in all directions and jumping around. The farmer let our five cows into this area and they went right to the feeding tub. They all stuck their heads part way down in the tub and three of them flinched like they were scared of the jumping mice. Then, one of them we called Zorba went in and grabbed a mouth full of mice. I counted five mice in his mouth. In no time at all he chewed them up and went in for more. Soon, the other four did the same and when the night was over I went home with 11 live mice and there were 3 dead ones left in the tub. I took out the dead ones and threw them in a pen containing two very small pigs and they ate them right down in seconds. The next night I came with 15 live rats that we put into the tub. Two of the five cows only got 1 rat each because they were poor and catching them. The one we called Zorba at five rats that night and the other two cows each ate four. The cows mouths are so big and powerful that when they bit a rat is was dead right now. They chewed and crushed the bone eating the rats heads and all. There was some blood in the bottom of the tub and the cows licked the surface until there was not a trace left. We gave it a break for a few days and when I went back to the farm I took 10 live rabbits with me. This time we could only work with one cow at a time and we started with Zorba. I had the rabbit in the long feeding tub. Zorba walked up and stuck his head in but, everytime his head got near the rabbit the rabbit would make a hop move and get farther from the cows head. Zorba was moving back and forth along the length of the tub. After about five minutes he seemed to tire a bit and he just lifted his head up and stood there for a minute or two. Meanwhile, the rabbit had moved all the way down to one end of the tub which was rounded. Zorba walked down toward end but he put his head down in the tub before he got to the end. The cow was actually thinking of a way to keep the rabbit from getting by him again. He slowly moved toward the rabbit with his head halfway down into the tub. This time when he got near the rabbit, for some reason the rabbit sat still probably because there was reall no place for him to go. Old Zorba had his nose right on the rabbit sniffing him and he just opened up his mouth and clamped right down on the rabbits back. He bit down hard and killed the rabbit instantly then he started to chew just masticating the rabbit. Zorba walked away chewing on the rabbit and over in the grass it fell from his mouth. He picked it up this time by the head and just bit the head off as he cruched and swallowed it. A cow has no upper teeth either but the roof of their mouth and their gum line is as hard as marble. Zorba just kept chewing the rabbit and literally busting it up. When he finished the rabbit was completely eaten. We led Zorba out and brought in the next cow who had an attitude that day. When that cow got to the tub it just reached right in and grabbed the rabbit instantly by the rear hind quarter. The cow just started chewing and as he chewed he took in more and more of the rabbits body. It only took this cow seven minutes to eat his first rabbit. All five cows ate both their live rabbits that night. Two nights later was the big night. I went out to the farm with five 80 pound goats which amounted to $200 worth of goat. We figured the possiblility of one goat per cow if the cows would go for them at all. We had experienced nothing but good luck with every other type of experiment conducted and I was ready for our luck to run out at some point. Why he did it this night I don't really know but he had his wife bring out his 35mm camera and later that evening he got one of the neatest photos ever shot. Someday we will perhaps release photos and videos of these experiments but for now they are only backup material to support the research. We decided that with five cows and five goats to contend with we might need a little larger area. It was decided that we would use the normal large pasture the cows were usually kept in all the time. The close area we would be working in was about 150 feet by 150 feet. At one end of this area the cows walkway out into a larger more open pasture area was only about 20 feet wide. We had the goats in the close in area and the farmer let the cows out from the barn into the pasture area where the goats were grazing. For nearly an hour the goats and the cows watched each other as the all grazed. The goats moved in close with the cows and it looked like next months cover of American Farmer Magazine. The goats didn't seem to mind at all when the cows were sniffing all around them. This scene went on for about 90 minutes and I told the farmer we should throw in the towel that night which we did. The next night we were in the same place and did the same thing. After an hour went by one of the cows started to act a bit frisky by running around the lot and kicking the air. When she settled down she stopped right in front of one of the goats and this dumb goat actually ran forward and butted the cow on the nose. The goat backed up and did it again and this time when the goat got near the cows head, the cow just raised its head and the goat fell right under the cows head. Suddenly the just dropped its head fast and bit into the back of the goats neck midway between the head and the point where the neck meets the body. The goat was kicking like a banshee as the cow was swinging the goat around. As if to follow the lead of the first cow, two of the others went over to two goats and picked them up the same way from the back of the neck. At this point we had 3 cows standing around with a goat in their teeth and dangling out of their mouths. This was observed over the span of about 10 minutes. Then Zorba went and got his goat the same way and within three minutes the last cow did the same thing. The goats were all still alive and all five cows had the same type bite hold on their goat. Zorba started to walk away toward the walkway that led to the far large pasture. The farmer went across the road and got something like fifty yards away from the electric fence that lined the walkway. The other four cows followed Zorba in single file fashion and the farmer snapped that photo facing the west with the sun far out on the horizen. The cows had all decided they wanted to kill and eat their goats out in the far pasture and that is exactly where they were headed. Along the way they kept shaking their goats but I could tell the goats were all still alive and kicking. We followed the cows to the far pasture which is almost a mile from where they grabbed their goats. We got way out there and almost all at the same time the cows dropped their goats to the ground. Two of the cows quickly bit their goats throat again and again with almost at chewing motion as they were biting. While those two were killing their goats that way, another cow was laying on and rolling all over that goat simply crushing it to death. The fourth cow had its goats nose and part of the head up to the eyes in its mouth and it was biting and shaking the goat on the ground. Zorba's goat appeared to have died and Zorba was biting and eating his way into its side back near the rear flank. What amazed me completely is that I don't think you could have trained any five cows to do the same thing and walk in a line single file like they did.
That completed the basic farm animal experiments although we did other things later on. I really had the proof and the confirmation I needed to support the theory that many scientists had told me about while at the same time really dispelling those who said it never happens.
I will share additional information with you in the next posting I place here but for now this will end the segment on farm animals. Like I had indicated earlier, I started with farm herbivores because they were readily available. I should also mention here that we did a similar run of experiments with six dairy cows who were big milk cows. To this day the farmer feeds them meat regularly because he says they are the healthiest cows he has and their milk production is a minimum of 15% better than all his other cows since they have been eating meat for a year now. He likes it because the meat they get in not contaminated in any way and he doesn't have to worry about mad cow disease or anything because of the quality level.
If you have found this research interesting and if you can contribute any info to me, please do so and I'll be thankful for your help. I'm trying to compile as many stories, experiment results and facts as I possibly can.
Thank You Again!
Brad |
