The Great Dorchester Cow Fight

A totally pointless post, but I wrote it anyway


I wonder how many cows and sheep I see during my working day. It would be impossible to count them all, but the figure must run into many thousands. Seeing livestock in fields living here in the West Country is as natural and expected as a Londoner seeing black cabs on the street of London.

Mind you things were so different when we had the foot and mouth outbreak, as while those in the city saw only the news and watched the pictures of the fires that burnt up all the dead animals, I saw the empty fields and that was what really brought home for me, just how terrible the foot and mouth was. I did get angry at the time with Trago Mills, they want to have hoofed animals on their site to make it a better shopping experience and while those animals never got foot and mouth, Trago killed them all anyway because they feared if they did they would have to shut the gates to the customers.

This last month has been really great seeing all the new lambs in the fields, you can’t help just loving them, but you know just what their fate is, as they and all farm animals are only breed to proved us humans with food and leather and wool etc.

Maybe growing up in the market town of Newton Abbot gave me an inbred understanding that farm animals were born and bred just to be killed for our needs; it was nothing I ever questioned growing up in Newton Abbot. I’m sure I’m not the only Newton boy on here who would made his way to the pig and sheep section of the Newton Abbot market every Wednesday during the school holidays.

When the auctioneers had finished their work us Newton boys would be there waiting for the cattle trucks to back and get those large tailgates down that doubled up as loading ramps. As the farmers went to the pens that contained the animals they had bought, we would be in those pens getting out the pigs and sheep and driving them toward the back of the trucks.

The pigs would sure squeal loudly and some of the animals would lose their footing of the loading ramp and would get walked on by all the others as they fought their way up the ramp and into the back of the truck. I knew some were going straight to the slaughter house and as I say it all seemed and was just perfectly normal and it was never a case that I did not love animals because I did. I lost count how many injured birds, rabbits, hedgehogs and even a squirrel I took home and kept in a box in the shed hoping to make them better so they could carry on with their little lives.

I was never destined to be a vegan being born in Newton Abbot that’s for sure; by the way I see they are now looking at giving vegans protection in law, I do wonder where it will all end having this need to give so many minority groups legal protection.

Now where was I? Yes those Dorchester cows, I hate violence, can’t stand seeing people fighting and causing injury to others, yet I suppose some of it must just be built into us, well that is if you believe as I do in evolution.

In the animal world I can understand why some fighting happens, if we look at chimps there has to be a dominate male to keep every other chimp in the family in order. In some other animals fighting is nature’s way of making sure the fittest and healthiest animals breed to keep the species going

There is one field of cows I see every Monday and Thursday morning around 8.30 am, they are just out side Dorchester by the roundabout that the football ground is on. As there are always traffic hold-ups there trying to get onto the roundabout, I get to watch them for sometime.

I believe they are British Whites and I do know they are all young steers and will one day end up in some butchers shop. They are always so peaceful and just seem to get along just fine, the odd time you will see one young steer that has worked out he has something between his rear legs, only he has not yet worked out where its meant to really go, but hey practice makes perfect does it not?

I was shocked and horrified (not really was just trying to make it sound more dramatic) On Thursday morning this week, this happy family of cows had lost their way and it was just two of them that started it.

Head to head they went and then all hell broke lose and soon there was 30 of them all in a big bunch really getting stuck into each other. I felt like pulling over and saying to them come on fella's pack it in and get back to being friends and being happy together.

You know, maybe I do spend too much time alone in my van.