Who has heard of a cow dance?!
Despite living in Somerset and being surrounded by fields of cows, I will admit that up until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t.
If, like me, you are not sure either then it’s the event in which cows are let back into the fields after being kept inside all Winter. They are so happy to be outside that they run, skip, roll and jump around on the grass. They don’t actually bust out any Cheryl Cole style dance moves (although I do like to picture that in my head), but the way in which they move around so freely does resemble some form of a dance.
The way I see it is that cows belong in fields and you can see from their reaction how much they LOVE fields. Fields make them happy and we should want our cows to be happy because they provide us with such an important part of our daily diet.
Unfortunately not everyone feels the same way and the British farming industry could be about to change. This change could see our cows being kept in large, industrial-scale farms with no access to fields. Essentially they would be battery cows, living in poor conditions and being milked constantly, just to meet the increasing demand for their by-products.
I was vegetarian for seven years and although I eat meat now, it’s important to me that the animals providing me with it live a happy life. The same goes for my dairy products, I always buy organic milk and although I can’t afford to buy organic meat, I do make sure that it carries the R.S.P.C.A freedom foods sticker. I have always felt strongly about this but now I have to start teaching Cherry about where our food comes from, here is why…
A couple of weeks ago myself, Adele and Christine were invited to the famous Worthy Farm (where Glastonbury Festival is held) to witness the cows being let out and it was such a lovely thing to see. We couldn’t have wished for nicer weather and I took Cherry who absolutely loved it.
At one point she was stood a few inches away from three cows who were as fascinated by her as she was by them. She found it hilarious watching them eat the grass and I explained to her about how they eat it to help them make milk. She still mentions it now. This is how it should be, our kids need to associate cows with fields and not with factories.
Here are the photos from the day, I just love the third one down where Cherry is stood opposite the three cows.
(photos were lost in a blog migration, hoping to replace soon).
You only need to look at these photos to know that cows belong in fields.
If you want to read more about cow dances then you can do so here – http://cowdance.wspa.org.uk/ and if you would like to sign the petition to say that you wouldn’t drink factory milk from battery cows then you can do so here – http://notinmycuppa.com/.
And here is the WSPA video, you can see a little clip of me and Cherry in there, talking to Michael Eavis!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tSdcNhrOa8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
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