Common Urban myths
Common Myths & Urban Legends
It’s remarkable the number of urban legends that have surfaced over the years regarding our ruminant animal friends. Cow-tipping is the most infamous (or, dare I say, most popular), but other hum-dingers include brown cows make chocolate milk, bulls hate the colour red, and it’s going to rain if you see cows lying down. Find out more below!
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When Spinning Tall Tales Goes Too Far
Urban legends are fun. Nobody knows how they originated or whose idea it was to create these myths, but they exist, that’s for sure!
We call them “urban legends” or “urban myths” because many of them are propagated by urban people rather than country folk. Additionally, they’re the most popular: the ones we tend to hear about the most. Country folk have their myths and legends, some based on old wives’ tales and others half-truths, but they’ve long since been drowned out by the myths that are talked about–and asked–most about by genuinely curious “city folk.”
Unfortunately, many have taken these too far and believe these myths to be true. I have encountered several individuals in the past who have publicly defended their beliefs that myths like cow tipping and the notion that only bulls have horns are, in fact, true and factual.
The only reason these people exist is due to the massive, multi-generational gap between urbanized and rural farm societies, and how the media has wantonly spread these myths in a manner where the urban public takes the countrified satirical jokes too seriously.
Fortunately, people like the author of Praise the Ruminant exist to counter these myths and provide scientific proof as to how and why these myths are exactly that.
The urban myths below cover everything not addressed in the ethical and feeding myths related to ruminants. The most common are covered below. If there are any more that need to be added, they will also find their way here.
The Urban Legend of Cow Tipping
Cow-tipping (or “sniping”) was thought to originate from some familial rivalry between country and city cousins. It’s tough to tell who came up with the idea. The country boys may have thought it fun to take advantage of their city cousins’ ignorance about cows. Or, the city boys had something to prove to their cousins by showing off their incredible cow-tipping abilities. And, seeing an opportunity, the country boys probably bolstered their egos by encouraging them, knowing full well they would be hilariously unsuccessful.
When I was trying to help some individuals realize that cow tipping wasn’t real, I was met with all sorts of reasons why it should be real. People had observations that cows slept standing up, or were so dumb and slow that it was easy to sneak up on them. Some claimed that cows couldn’t see in the dark, or that they are so top-heavy that it’s easy for them to topple over. Too bad, for those peeople anyway, that all those are simply untrue.
Other Common Myths
There are myths that cows and cattle eat nothing but grains, and then there are myths that they can never eat grains because it’s horrifically toxic to them. And then some people exclaim that all cows should be on grass, yet none ever see a pasture at all. These are just the most common myths that people share when they see cows eating on a farmer’s social media page.