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Svansfall at 27 May 2006: 12:45
>>609 Hello DragonFlame, thanks for the well worded questions.
To start with, most cows absolutely love to be brushed, scritched, petted. One almost universally well-known spot most cows love to be scritched over, is over their hips, and down the back of their hindlegs. It does happen that some cows when I am scritching them there, deliberately move their rear towards me, so that I will touch their privates.
Most people who are caring about their cows will scritch over their hindlegs and hips, because the cows enjoy it. I am guessing those who are not zoo will move their hand away in case the cow leans their genitals into the scritching. Me, and other cow-loving zoos will just keep touching them, as long as the cow shows that she is enjoying it. So, in a lot of cases, it's actually the cow herself making the first move.
Sometimes, I will instead make the first move, and gently move my hand closer to their genitals. It's like asking a question: "Do you like this right now?" They show extremely clearly wheter they enjoy the touch or not. If they enjoy it, they raise their tail up to the side, allowing easier access, sometimes leaning into my touch. If they don't enjoy it, they lower their tail, and/or step away from me. It's very clear. I don't even touch their genitals, just nearby. And if they show they don't enjoy it, their will is always respected, and I will scritch them in the places they want to be scritched in at the moment.
So, I guess the answer to your question is both: It just naturally happens, but they also know that if they want sexual stimulation, they can approach me and ask me for it. They also know that if they want a back-scritch, or fresh water filled up, or some nice food, they can ask me for that also, and they will get what they ask for, nothing else.
Now on to the next part of your post. I agree that sometimes it is right to force animals to do things they would not want to do, but only in the cases when the end-result is the wellbeing of the animal. Such as when you have to give them medical treatment they don't want to take, etc. Things that are for their best.
As for using dogs for dogsledding or horses for horseback riding, I am fine with that, because in most cases, the dogs and the horses find it highly entertaining. As for using animals for meat. I find it just as wrong and tasteless to use cows for meat, as most people would find it wrong to use cats, dogs or humans for meat.
I am seriously completely against the usage of cows and other animals for industrial purposes, for the sake of human profit. We can survive just as well by just eating vegetable matter. I am not the kind of person to usually speak up about this, though, because I don't like when people are trying to tell others that their beliefs are wrong. So I am not telling you that your beliefs are wrong, but I personally feel it is wrong.
Cows in production are often stressed, no matter how good and caring their farmer is. And most farmers don't have time to groom every single one of their cows on a regular basis. If you read in books about animal care, they state that cows should be groomed just as often as a horse. I don't know how it is in the US, but in the country where I live, it is now very difficult to make a living as a farmer. You have to constantly produce more and more to survive, and the ones that suffer from that are the animals.
The reason for BSE (Mad Cow Disease) in most Western European countries was because the manufactured feed included protein from bone meal. Why this was done in the first place, was that they had to boost the amount of milk produced. Most manufactured feed these days ensure that the cows either produce more milk, or grow faster, just to be more profitable. I'd never feed any kind of manufactured feed to my cows - it's bad for them, only good for production, and it really messes their metabolism up. All of those who say cows are stinky... Yeah, you have probably been close to cows who are part of some kind of production, eventually either to become meat, or to produce milk. They get stinky from the manufactured feed, and from most kinds of silage. There's no chance for a cow in production to live a 'normal' cow's life. Cows who are not stressed, and cows who only eat natural food, they smell great (IMO).
And of course the issue wheter the animal could have physical or mental damage from a sexual encounter is a highly important issue, which is why one must always make sure to see that the animal is enjoying, and is not stressed. To always treat the animal with respect, and always be very careful with everything you do together with the animal. The same goes for any kind of interraction with animals, wheter it is sexual or not.
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