Cow pushing

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Photo of a group of black and white cows in a mountain pasture
Cows standing and resting in Piedmont

Kuhschubsen or Kühenschubsen ( English cow-tipping ) is a modern legend . Domestic cattle sleeping or dozing while standing are said to be easily knocked over by bumping into them. However, cattle do not sleep standing up. Also, a person could not muster enough strength to knock over a full-grown cattle.

procedure

The aim of the cow pushing is to get standing cattle to tip over on their side and fall over by targeted pushing. Since - so the claim - awake cattle show resistance to such attacks, one should select sleeping cattle as a target while standing. These could neither anticipate the attack nor react quickly enough to intercept.

physics

This principle is based on the consideration that the cattle body has a relatively high center of gravity and the legs have a comparatively small stance in order to support the weight laterally. In fact, at least domestic cattle are more stable than this consideration assumes: In order for the animal to actually tip over, the center of gravity must be moved vertically beyond the axis of the opposite pair of legs when it hits. It is assumed that the friction is negligible and that the cattle does not slide on the ground. A study by Margo Lilie and Tracy Boechler from the University of British Columbia , which calculated with a regular cuboid as a model body and an assumed average mass of 682 kg (derived from a full-grown Holstein cattle ), came to the result that, depending on the leg posture of the animal (hooves placed directly next to one another, vertical leg posture or wide stance), the strength of 3.00 adult humans with a close stance or 4.43 with vertical leg stance and 5.75 with wide stance would be required to tip over an adult animal. They assumed that an adult can apply an average of 660 N and a total of - depending on the case - 201 to 385 kg has to be lifted over the longitudinal axis, which corresponds to 1975 to 3777 N. This assumption is a comparatively optimistic estimate: other authors assume a force potential of around 300 N, which would require an order of magnitude of 10 people to knock over the animal when it is held upright. In reality, the cattle body also absorbs a large part of the impact energy through deformation.

biology

The actual sleep behavior of cattle is also contrary to practice. They don't sleep standing up, as claimed, but almost exclusively lying down. Standing cows are dozing at most and would show resistance to attacks.

Reality content

The physical and biological properties of cows are in clear contradiction to stories that tell of the rather effortless knocking over of cows. According to Margo Lilie, only one case is known in which a group of people actually succeeded in knocking over a cow. Not only did they hit several of them at withers height , but also hit the legs on the other side of the animal, which caused it to fall. However, this does not correspond to the typical procedure described in the stories. Overall, there are considerable doubts about the often claimed popularity and widespread use of this practice. It would be cruel to animals to bring down a cattle in the manner described.

reception

As a modern legend , cow pushing found its way into popular culture. An episode of the cartoon series Beavis and Butt-Head (1994) entitled Cow Tipping was devoted exclusively to this topic. It is also featured in comedies such as Heathers (1989) and Tommy Boy - Durch Dick und Dünn (1995) as well as 25 km / h (2018) or the cartoons Der Tierisch Verrückte Bauernhof and Cars (both 2006) and in the 9th episode of 7th season of The Big Bang Theory (2013) and in the 1st episode of the 1st season of Murder with a View (2008).

The English-language guide, The Official Cow-Tippers Handbook by Duke Rightious, is devoted to the fictional story and other aspects of cow pushing.

Similar ideas

A similar idea was already found among ancient authors (inter alia Caesar, De Bello Gallico , 6.27). After that, moose would sleep leaning against trees. The Teutons would catch them by sawing the trees, which would bring the elk to fall as soon as it leaned against it.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Vogel 2007 , p. 1070.
  2. ↑ Lilie & Boechler 2005 , pp. 2–8.
  3. ↑ a b Wittlin 2005