Scrub bulls – had a close encounter with one some years back on Carson River Station (Kimberley Region).

I was using a 4WD quad bike, a bunch of star pickets strapped on it for mining lease pegging purposes, and navigating by the GPS (attached on the handle bar).

The Quad was a water cooled Yamaha and thus somewhat quiet in operation.

After about 15 minutes traversing the country to the corner peg of the lease. I realised I was, well not lost since I knew exactly where I was, but needed to look at the topographic map to plan the next leg of the route. So I stopped, as you do, to captain cook the ground.

My problem was I stopped next to a scrub bull, (with his RH horn missing). As I stopped the quad he startled, nudged me from my left, (no horn thank heavens) and I then instantly moved the quad forward 10 meters. Both of us were equally startled – the bull on encountering an alien machine, I an half horned scrub bull. Sort of Mexican standoff :-)

And both of us were very wary when either of us spotted the other afterwards.

It’s moments like these that on needs minties or other stimulants.

Cows cry? Sure do – reminds me of an incident when I was working on Wooleen station (Brett Pollock) when a killer was needed. (Wooleen has since been destocked of sheep and now runs cattle).

Out to the paddock we went, a suitable beast (cow) was picked and despatched with a 308. The rest of the small herd only needed a couple of minutes before they realised what happened. Butchering the beast necessitated us putting a ring of vehicles around the deceased and to protect us from the bulls.

The herd of cattle were clearly distressed but having memories slightly longer lasting than goldfish, calm took some time to occur, about 1/ 2 an hour as I recall.

Bovines might be a tad dense in the brain area but they, non the less, are emotional animals and sense loss as much as we do, albeit with a shorter memory span.

Now killing an elephant for food is not a wise act – for elephants have prodigious memories. Perhaps why humans don’t have steak-pachydermus as a staple.

One advantage of paddock killing cattle is that they are felled by a bullet without knowing what hit them. But the herd does get upset. I have not heard of kangaroos grieving for lost mates.

That’s what butchers relate on cows that are being driven to the slaughterhouse. I’ve not heard of kangaroos grieving for lost mates either; however, barn swallows do it through brief rituals before a dead mate or when their chicks accidentally fall outside the nest.

Regardless of being familiarized on seeing animals dying for my profession, I’m still distressed at their suffering; no matter if it is an ant or a cow.

N N, I don’t know what you mean by “cry”. They bellow, and my impression is, is that it’s not for themselves but for those that have gone before.
When you shoot and butcher a cow on an open plain, sometimes the remaining herd will virtually have a requiem mass over the carcass.

Sorry, English is not my native language, but Helen’s description is exactly what I meant, i.e. dropping tears by their cheeks. I’ve not seen them doing that; I was referring to something that butchers relate.