Are Mini Cows Dangerous to the Industry?

By Jennifer Hill

If you follow any of the various social media pages designated for buying and selling livestock (shhh, don’t tell Facebook those exist) you’ve watched first-hand the rise of the latest and greatest livestock fad, mini cows. They’re fuzzy, cute and look like a cross between a cow and an ewok. Even the most rugged of men couldn’t possibly look at those pictures and not crack a smile. But are these adorable little fluff balls worse for the industry than we realize?

If we’re being honest we have to acknowledge that a mini cow really serves no utilitarian purpose. The amount of beef it makes will be, well minimal, as is the market for it. A mini can’t go to a large-scale processor that utilizes automation in their plant because the minis simply don’t fit in the equipment, which is why sale barns hate them so much. The only real purpose for these tiny cows is to act as yard ornaments or pets, letting their owners soak up their cuteness, getting an occasional endorphin hit from all that petite fuzz.  

But the path to becoming a pet is dangerous. Look at what our culture has done to the horse. Horses were once considered a tool, another piece of equipment to get the job done. When a horse was done serving its purpose it went humanely into the food system, either for people (many other countries eat horse) or in pet food. However, as more and more people began buying horses for pleasure the balance shifted towards pet status. In 2005 two Republican Senators, John Sweeney of NY and John Ensign of NV pushed through legislation that effectively closed all horse slaughterhouses in the US. Today it’s much harder to get rid of an old or dangerous horse because there’s simply no market for them. When a horse is no longer useful its owner is forced to pay exorbitant vet fees for euthanasia. Unfortunately, some of them decide to go the cheaper route and release their horse into the “wild”. The horses that survive and don’t die a long, slow death from lack of water (barn raised horses are rarely good at seeking out fresh water in new places) add to the feral herds currently destroying much of the western rangelands. All because our society decided that a horse is a pet, not livestock.

Cute sells, for both the animals themselves and the causes that tap into it. Think about the last sad ASPCA ad you saw on TV. They don’t show images of angry pit bulls, snarling and snapping at their rescuers. Instead they capitalize on cute, fluffy, small dogs and kittens. Paired with the moving sounds of Sarah McLaughlin they successfully tug on the emotional strings of potential donors. It’s not hard to imagine similar ads promoting a vegan lifestyle utilizing pictures of mini cows. Because these animals look less like livestock and more like pets there could be some real potential for dangerous traction.

Perhaps we should take a step back and approach the mini cow craze with caution, ensuring we don’t inadvertently feed the flames of animal rights activists who are constantly looking for ways to prove that animal agriculture is cruel.