Cows Are the New Puppies

Cows are having a bit of a moment lately, and I don’t mean because of bird flu. Look no further than social media’s newfound love of so-called cowpuppies — miniature cows that are treated like puppy dogs, or even sometimes humans. Some get groomed, others Jet Ski. Even full-sized cows are winning people’s hearts.

I might have dismissed these videos as what David Letterman called stupid pet tricks — until I ended up with a farm and my own small herd.

Life on the farm was a far cry from the decade I spent as a neuroscientist training dogs to go in M.R.I. scanners; I was studying how dogs possess the same brain structures as humans for experiencing emotions like joy and love. Over the last three years I’ve learned to manage pastures and help newborn calves latch on to their mamas. (I also learned that “cattle” is the proper gender-neutral term, whereas a “cow” is a female that has had a calf.)

While cattle are as intelligent and as lovable as dogs, I’ve found that they go through life at their own leisurely speed. Whereas dogs adapt to the rhythms of human society in all its varied forms, cattle don’t abide sudden movements or states of human agitation. By forcing people to adopt their pace, cattle connect us to the environment in ways that no other animal does. It may be time to take seriously the beneficial effects of cattle on our mental and emotional states, just as we do for other animals, such as dogs and horses.

Cattle are sensitive creatures. They have evolved a suite of sensory adaptations to detect predators at long distances. Their visual systems are highly sensitive to motion along the horizon, where dangerous animals lurk. They have great night vision, a keen sense of smell and hearing at least as good as a dog’s or cat’s. Because they are wired to keep an eye out for predators, they sleep only four hours a night (and even then it’s in snatches of five minutes at a time). People often say that elephants never forget, but neither do cattle. They can recognize pictures of herd mates as well as humans they know.

Charles Darwin argued that both humans and animals possess a similarity in the expression of emotions. We can, of course, discern basic emotions, like pleasure and fear. But what endears dogs to us is their apparent capacity for what we take as their version of love — the longing in their eyes to be with their people and their overall willingness to please.