![Cow lying on side](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Cow_lying_on_side.jpg)
Cow tipping is the purported activity of sneaking up on any unsuspecting or sleeping upright
cow
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...
and pushing it over for entertainment. The practice of cow tipping is generally considered an
urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
, and stories of such feats viewed as
tall tale
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some tall tales are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories ("the fish that got away") such as, "That fish was so big, why I tell ya', it n ...
s.
The implication that
rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...
citizens seek such entertainment due to lack of alternatives is viewed as a
stereotype. The concept of cow tipping apparently developed in the 1970s, though tales of animals that cannot rise if they fall has historical antecedents dating to the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
.
Cows routinely lie down and can easily regain their footing unless sick or injured. Scientific studies have been conducted to determine if cow tipping is theoretically possible, with varying conclusions. All agree that cows are large animals that are difficult to surprise and will generally resist attempts to be tipped. Estimates suggest a force of between is needed, and that at least four and possibly as many as fourteen people would be required to achieve this. In real-life situations where cattle have to be laid on the ground, or "cast", such as for
branding,
hoof
The hoof (plural: hooves) is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, which is covered and strengthened with a thick and horny keratin covering. Artiodactyls are even-toed ungulates, species whose feet have an even number of digits, yet the rum ...
care or veterinary treatment, either rope restraints are required or specialized mechanical equipment is used that confines the cow and then tips it over. On rare occasions, cattle can lie down or fall down in proximity to a ditch or hill that restricts their normal ability to rise without help. Cow tipping has many references in popular culture and is also used as a
figure of speech.
Scientific study
![Cow lying on side in field](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Cow_lying_on_side_in_field.jpg)
Some versions of the urban legend suggest that because cows sleep standing up, it is possible to approach them and push them over without the animals reacting.
However, cows only sleep lightly while standing up, and they are easily awakened.
They lie down to sleep deeply.
Furthermore, numerous sources have questioned the practice's feasibility, since most cows weigh over and easily resist any lesser force.
A 2005 study led by Margo Lillie, a
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...
, and her student Tracy Boechler, concluded that tipping a cow would require a force of nearly
and is therefore impossible to accomplish by a single person. Her calculations found that it would require more than four people to apply enough force to push over a cow,
based on an estimate that a single person could exert of force. However, since a cow can brace itself, Lillie and Boechler suggested that five or six people would, most likely, be needed.
Further, cattle are well aware of their surroundings and are very difficult to surprise, due to excellent senses of both smell and hearing.
Lillie and Boechler's analysis found that if a cow did not move, the principles of static physics suggest that two people might be able to tip a cow if its
centre of mass
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...
were pushed over its hooves before the cow could react. However, cows are not rigid or unresponsive, and the faster humans have to move, the less force they can exert. Thus Lillie and Boechler concluded that it is unlikely that cows can actually be tipped over in this way.
Lillie stated, "It just makes the physics of it all, in my opinion, impossible."
Although biologist Steven Vogel agrees that it would take a force of about 3,000 newtons to push over a standing cow, he thinks that the study by Lillie and Boechler overestimates the pushing ability of an individual human.
Using data from Cotterell and Kamminga, who estimated that humans exert a pushing force of 280 newtons, Vogel suggests that someone applying force at the requisite height to topple a cow might generate a maximum push of no more than 300 newtons. By this calculation, at least 10 people would be needed to tip over a non-reacting cow. However, this combined force requirement, he says, might not be the greatest impediment to such a prank. Standing cows are not asleep and, like other animals, have ever-vigilant reflexes. "If the cow does no more than modestly widen its stance without an overall shift of its center of gravity", he says, "about 4,000 newtons or 14 pushers would be needed—quite a challenge to deploy without angering the cow."
Historical origins
The belief that certain animals cannot rise if pushed over has historical antecedents.
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
recorded a belief that a
European elk had no knee joints and could not get up if it fell.
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
said the same about the hind legs of an animal he called the
achlis
{{Refimprove, date=August 2013
The achlis was one of a number of strange creatures listed in Roman mythology by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century BC. He described it as saying it looked somewhat like an elk, though it bore some very strange char ...
, which Pliny's 19th-century translators Bostock and Riley said was merely another name for the elk.
They also noted that Pliny's belief about the jointless back legs of the achlis (elk) was false.
In 1255,
Louis IX of France gave an elephant to
Henry III of England
Henry III (1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272), also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry a ...
for his
menagerie in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
.
A drawing by the historian
Matthew Paris
Matthew Paris, also known as Matthew of Paris ( la, Matthæus Parisiensis, lit=Matthew the Parisian; c. 1200 – 1259), was an English Benedictine monk, chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey ...
for his ''
Chronica Majora
The ''Chronica Majora'' is the seminal work of Matthew Paris, a member of the English Benedictine community of St Albans and long-celebrated historian. The work begins with Creation and contains annals down to the year of Paris' death of 1259. ...
'' can be seen in his
bestiary
A bestiary (from ''bestiarum vocabulum'') is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history ...
at
Parker Library of
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
An accompanying text cites elephant lore suggesting that elephants did not have knees and were unable to get up if they fell.
Journalist Jake Steelhammer believes the American urban myth of cow tipping originated in the 1970s. It "stampeded into the '80s", he says, "when movies like ''
Tommy Boy
''Tommy Boy'' is a 1995 American buddy adventure comedy film directed by Peter Segal, written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, produced by Lorne Michaels, and starring former ''Saturday Night Live'' castmates and close friends Chris Farley and Davi ...
'' and ''
Heathers
''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and ...
'' featured cow tipping expeditions."
Stories about cow tipping tend to be second-hand, he says, told by someone who does not claim to have tipped a cow but who knows someone else who says they did.
Veterinary and husbandry practices
![Calf cradle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Calf_cradle.JPG)
Cattle may need to be deliberately thrown or tipped over for certain types of
husbandry
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, startin ...
practices and medical treatment. When done for medical purposes, this is often called "casting", and when performed without mechanical assistance requires the attachment of of rope around the body and legs of the animal. After the rope is secured by non-slip
bowline
The bowline ( or ) is an ancient and simple knot used to form a fixed loop at the end of a rope. It has the virtues of being both easy to tie and untie; most notably, it is easy to untie after being subjected to a load. The bowline is sometimes ...
knots, it is pulled to the rear until the animal is off-balance. Once the cow is forced to lie down in
sternal
The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. Sh ...
recumbency (on its chest), it can be rolled onto its side and its legs tied to prevent kicking.
A calf table or calf cradle, also called a "tipping table" or a "throw down", is a relatively modern invention designed to be used on
calves that are being
branded. A calf is run into a
chute, confined, and then tipped by the equipment onto its side for easier branding and
castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharma ...
.
Hydraulic tilt tables for adult cattle have existed since the 1970s and are designed to lift and tip cattle onto their sides to enable veterinary care, particularly of the animals'
genitalia
A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...
, and for
hoof
The hoof (plural: hooves) is the tip of a toe of an ungulate mammal, which is covered and strengthened with a thick and horny keratin covering. Artiodactyls are even-toed ungulates, species whose feet have an even number of digits, yet the rum ...
maintenance.
(Unlike horses, cows generally do not cooperate with a
farrier
A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses' hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves, if necessary. A farrier combines some blacksmith's skills (fabricating, adapting, and adj ...
when standing.)
A Canadian veterinarian explained, "Using the table is much safer and easier than trying to get underneath to examine the animal", and noted that cows tipped over on a padded table usually stop struggling and become calm fairly quickly.
One design, developed at the
Western College of Veterinary Medicine in
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...
,
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
, included "cow comfort" as a unique aspect of care using this type of apparatus.
Involuntary recumbency
Cows may inadvertently tip themselves. Due to their bulk and relatively short legs, cattle cannot roll over. Those that lie down and roll to their sides with their feet pointing uphill may become stuck and unable to rise without assistance, with potentially fatal results. In such cases, two humans can roll or flip a cow onto its other side, so that its feet are aimed downhill, thus allowing it to rise on its own. In one documented case of "real-life cow tipping", a pregnant cow rolled into a gully in
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
and became trapped in an inverted state until rescued by
volunteer fire fighters. The owner of the cow commented that he had seen this happen "once or twice" before.
Trauma or illness may also result in a cow unable to rise to its feet. Such animals are sometimes called "
downers." Sometimes this occurs as a result of muscle and nerve damage from calving or a disease such as
mastitis
Mastitis is inflammation of the breast or udder, usually associated with breastfeeding. Symptoms typically include local pain and redness. There is often an associated fever and general soreness. Onset is typically fairly rapid and usually occurs ...
.
Leg injuries, muscle tears, or a massive infection of some sort may also be causes.
Downer cows are encouraged to get to their feet and have a much greater chance of recovery if they do. If unable to rise, some have survived—with medical care—as long as 14 days and were ultimately able to get back on their feet. Appropriate medical treatment for a downer cow to prevent further injury includes rolling from one side to the other every three hours, careful and frequent feeding of small amounts of
fodder, and access to clean water.
Death
Dead animals may appear to have been tipped over, but this is actually the process of
rigor mortis
Rigor mortis (Latin: ''rigor'' "stiffness", and ''mortis'' "of death"), or postmortem rigidity, is the third stage of death. It is one of the recognizable signs of death, characterized by stiffening of the limbs of the corpse caused by chemic ...
, which stiffens the muscles of the carcass,
beginning six to eight hours after death and lasting for one to two days. It is particularly noticeable in the limbs, which stick out straight.
Post-mortem bloat also occurs because of gas formation inside the body.
The process may result in cattle carcasses that wind up on their back with all four feet in the air.
In popular culture
![Cow tipping creamery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Cow_tipping_creamery.jpg)
Assorted individuals have claimed to have performed cow tipping, often while under the influence of alcohol.
These claims, to date, cannot be reliably verified,
with Jake Swearingen of ''
Modern Farmer'' noting in 2013 that
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
, a popular source of videos of challenges and stunts, "fails to deliver one single actual cow-tipping video".
Pranksters have sometimes pushed over artificial cows. Along Chicago's
Michigan Avenue in 1999, two "apparently drunk" men felled six fiberglass cows that were part of a
Cows on Parade public art exhibit. Four other vandals removed a "Wow cow" sculpture from its lifeguard chair at
Oak Street Beach
Oak Street Beach is located on North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, on the shore of Lake Michigan. One of a series of List of beaches in Chicago, Chicago beaches, the Chicago Park District defines Oak Street Beach as the area from approxim ...
and abandoned it in a pedestrian underpass. A year later, New York City anchored its CowParade art cows, including "A Streetcow Named Desire", to concrete bases "to prevent the udder disrespect of cow-tippers and thieves."
Cow tipping has been featured in films from the 1980s and later, such as ''
Heathers
''Heathers'' is a 1989 American black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and ...
'' (1988), ''
Tommy Boy
''Tommy Boy'' is a 1995 American buddy adventure comedy film directed by Peter Segal, written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, produced by Lorne Michaels, and starring former ''Saturday Night Live'' castmates and close friends Chris Farley and Davi ...
'' (1995), ''
Barnyard'' (2006), and ''
I Love You, Beth Cooper'' (2009).
It was also used in the title of a 1992 documentary film by
Randy Redroad Randy Redroad is a film director, film editor, writer and songwriter. He is best known for his films ''The Doe Boy'' (2001) and ''Among Ravens'' (2014).
Early life and education
Redroad was born Randolph Kendall Snapp on Chanute Air Force Base in R ...
, ''Cow Tipping—The Militant Indian Waiter''.
Variants of cow tipping have also been seen in popular media such as the film ''
Cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...
'' (2006), which features a vehicular variant called
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...
-tipping, and the video game
Fallout: New Vegas, which allows the character to sneak up on and tip over a Brahmin, the game's two-headed cow-like animal. The board game
Battle Cattle is based on the practice, with heavily armed cows having "Tipping Defense Numbers."
In
The Little Willies
The Little Willies is an American alternative country supergroup formed in 2003. It features Norah Jones on piano keyboards and vocals, Richard Julian on guitar keyboards and vocals, Jim Campilongo on guitar, Lee Alexander on bass, and Dan Rie ...
song "Lou Reed" from their 2006
self-titled debut album,
Norah Jones
Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and as of 2012, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. ''Billboard'' named her the ...
sings about a fictional event during which musician
Lou Reed tips cows in Texas. In another medium, ''
The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on C ...
'', a television show, uses cow tipping lore as an element to establish the nature of a rural character,
Penny.
The term ''cow tipping'' is sometimes used as a
figure of speech for pushing over something big. In ''A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages'', author John Weir Close uses the term to describe contemporary
mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
. "Tipping
sacred cows
''Sacred Cows'', subtitled "The Songs That Helped Us," is an album featuring the rock band The Swirling Eddies, performing their own less-than-serious versions of popular CCM hits, released in 1996 on StarSong.
The basic plan for the recor ...
" has been used as a deliberate
mixed metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared with ...
in titles of books on Christian ministry and business management.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Cow tippingJames T. Callow Folklore Archive at
University of Detroit Mercy
The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic univers ...
The Straight Dope on Cow Tipping*
{{authority control
Cattle
Fictional activities
Urban legends
Stereotypes of rural people