Oberlin, Ohio
Special Thanks To: My Talent Development Class Some people believe that cows have a right to live and
not be eaten, abused, for humans. But then again some people
believe that cows are stupid and are just put on this earth
to be eaten. People may think that cows have no feelings at
all, and that they are about to be eaten. I personally feel that it isn't fair to raise an animal
to kill it for our own purpose. They have a right to live a
full life. I feel it is extremely cruel what they do to
calves. They keep them in tiny crates for about two years or
till they are old enough to be slaughtered for veal meat. I
think all people and animals have a right to be able to run
and play. Animals have feelings too. In New Guinea in 1940, Papuans were found to have a
disease that was passed down through families, via,
cannibalism. The Papuans ate their deceased family members
brains as a social ritual, hoping to keep their relatives
thoughts alive. Any children born were automatically
infected. The disease was named Jacob's disease or Kuru.
This disease was fatal and and caused the brain tissue to
become spongy like. Many papuans died. Scrappie's is a disease that appeared in sheep, Britain
1970. It was called Scrappie because they rub up against
stuff. The brain became sponge like with a result of
death. Bovine Spongieform Encepholopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow
Disease was first noticed in Great Britain April 1985. The
symptoms were : they would start kicking, then they had
extreme case of jitters, and then they would die. Some more
symptoms are decreased milk, difficulty standing, loss of
body weight, anorexic, high stepping, itching, excessive
licking, and it causes death. 7,000 cases were reported from
1988 to 1992. If a cow has BSE then the offspring will
defiantly have it. You can't tell if anyone or anything has
the disease. BSE takes ten to fifty years to eat away the
whole human brain. Cows are being fed an unnaturally rich edit that causes
metabolic disorders. Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) is being
injected into cows to get them to produce even more milk all
in the name of profit. BGH also increases milk by
default. Lameness is a synthetic hormone. Mastitis is a bacterial
infection of their udders. Ketosis can be fatal. Leminitis
causes disorders. A cow can consume 40 pounds of corn silage (fermented
corn plants) daily. A dairy cow eats about 90 pounds of food
each day. A cow can digest materials that humans can't, like grass,
hay, shrubs, unprocessed grains, seeds from cotton plants,
newspaper, chicken litter, and even nitrogen from her own
urine! It takes many days for these plant materials to be
"predigested" in the rumen (Stomach) during this time the
cow chews and re-chews the grassy material. She will
actually belch up some of this material and then chew it for
about 30 seconds, swallow and repeat with another
mouthful. We use cows droppings to fertilize and replenish the
fields and crops with the nutrients consumed in the cows
daily diet. For 290 days or so the milk she produces goes to
support humans, by providing milk, cream for coffee, ice
cream cheese, butter, meat, etc. Cows have a nine month gestation period (300 days). Then
they have a 60 day rest in between. They are forced to have
a calf every year. Bacteria and protozoans (small one celled animals) live
in the rumen of the cow to help her digest the materials she
eats. If they were to die permanently the cow would starve
to death. Cows are able to take these unusual protein sources and
turn them into two food products with some of the highest
nutrients available, meat and milk A cow produces about 22.5 quarts of milk a day. That's
about 1,600 glasses of milk a year. Cows can produce
one-hundred thirty pounds of milk a day at peak level.
Seventy eight day average over the lactation period. This is
ten times more then they would in the nature A dairy cow can
produce enough milk in a week to support her own baby for
the whole time it needs milk to drink. Milk has many side effects that it is so hard to pick a
place to start. Cows milk causes more mucus than any other
food. This mucus coats your body, clogs our arteries and
irritates the whole respiratory systems. Hay fever, asthma,
bronchitis, sinusitis, colds, runny noses, and ear
infections are the leading causes of illness due to milk
consumption. Milk is also the leading cause of allergies. Dairy
products cause heart disease and severe chest pains, as
reported by Dr. William A. Ellis and Dr. N. W. Walker, who
researched the effects of milk for eight years. They also
noted that cheese is a major contributor to migraine
headaches. They found that once milk and other dairy
products were discontinued, hundreds of migraine sufferers
stopped having these headaches. There are six breeds of dairy cattle: Guernsey, Holstein,
Brown Swiss, Jersey, Ayrshire, and Milking Shorthorn. In
many parts of the world cows once provided or may still
provide the primary means of tilling the soil for planting
crops. In a healthy environment a cow will normally live 25
years. On a modern factory farm they are slaughtered after
three to four years then used for ground beef! A dairy cow weighs about 1,400 pounds! A dairy cow drinks
twenty to fifty gallons of water a day. That is about a
bathtub full. The stomach of a cow is divided into four
compartments that are specialized to ferment these
indigestible feeds. Cows are very tolerant of pain. Using a local anesthetics
a vet can open the abdomen of the cow and perform necessary
surgical procedures while the cow stands quietly and
patiently throughout the surgery. Dairy cattle are old enough to breed at 14 months of age,
if the body is ready. Normally one calf is born at a
time. beef - a full-grown ox, cow, or bull that gets fattened
up to slaughter and kill. calcium - a soft, silver-white, chemical found in
limestone. calf - a young cow or bull. casein - major protein in cow's milk; about 80 % of total
protein content, main component of cheese. cattle - domesticated cows, bulls, and steers. chymosin - a digestive enzyme contained in rennet that
clots or curds milk. curds - clotted protein formed when fresh milk is treated
rennet. dairy - any food product that is made by a lot of milk,
such as milk, cream, and cheese. farm - a piece of land with houses, barns, etc. on which
crops or animals are raised. grain - a small hard grain used for a lot of things, such
as wheat. grass - a green plant substance that grows on the
ground. hormones - a substance formed in some organs of the
body. mastitis - inflammation of the breast or udder. milk - beverage which is approximately 87% liquid and 13%
solid. milk fever - mild puerperal fever. organic - a way of growing something without using
chemicals. pesticides - any chemical used for killing weeds or
bugs. udder - glandular organ of cows which contain milk
producing cells. udder ailment - a disease of the udder. vegetarian - person who eats no meat at all. Author Unknown. Dairy Cows. [Online] Available
http://maabre.org/dairy.facts.htm. Grover, Missouri.
2004. Author Unknown. Dairy Cows. [Online] Available
http://www.moomilk.com. 2004. Author Unknown. Dairy Cows. [Online] Available
http://www.whymilk.com. 2004. Author Unknown. Dairy Cow Barn. [Online]
Available http://www.dairycows.com/DairyCowBarnyard.
2004. Author Unknown. Mad Cow Disease. [Online]
Available http://www.anarac.com/madcowdisease.htm. 2004. Grant, Richard & Keown, Jeffrey. Dairy Cows.
[Online] Available
http://anpub.unl.edu/dairy/q999.htm. Nebguide. 2004. Scuro, Vincent. (1986). Wonders of Dairy Cows. New
York. My name is Katherine. I am 11 and I attend Langston
Middle School. I really like cows and that is why I did this
topic. I live in Oberlin, Ohio. I have 4 dogs, 2 cats, 2
birds, 1 frog, and I have around 30 fish. I have lived in
Oberlin for all my life. I have one little brother. I
collect cow items. I have about 50 different cow items some
large and some small. I really like all colors. .
My Parents
Mr. Memmott
Liz for her editing help
Cows
Cow Lovers
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