I recently found myself on youtube, watching mindless videos. One particular video was a comedy sketch featuring a cow hunter. This led me to think about cows.
Cows. Such gentle creatures. All they do is stand around, eat and poop. Nothing to be afraid of.
Upon further reflection, I realized I am afraid of cows. I think most city people are. If you don’t think you are, you probably have not been in a situation that has made you aware of it yet. I can recall two situations where I was afraid of cows.
One was in the Swiss alps. I was walking through the alps, from Switzerland to Italy. My end goal was to reach Rome on foot. But that day, I was focused on getting to the next hostel, at the Grand St. Bernard Pass. About two hours into my hiking day, my path was blocked by a herd of cows. I used this opportunity to have a snack and drink some water. I also prayed the cows would move. There was no way I would be able to move them. Cows are huge! And there were a bunch of them. I could not go around them. They seemed to be mooing angrily at me. Eventually they ambled off enough to let me pass. I stayed on my guard, alert to the slightest sign that a cow might try to trample me. I emerged on the other side of the herd unscathed. Truthfully, my heart was beating faster after that encounter.
Menacing cows in the alps
The second encounter was in the Carmel hills in Israel. I was on a day-hike with my girlfriend and with my cousin. It was a beautiful sunny day. We did not expect that halfway into our hike, our path would be blocked. There stood a cow with its calf, munching on wild grass. It looked up, and eyed us curiously. We clapped and hollered, but the cows showed no signs of yielding. We laughed nervously, unsure of how aggressive a cow could be when with her calf. We took a short video to share with other cousins, knowing they probably would not care. None of us was brave enough to get within kicking distance of the cows. Finally, after what seemed like ages, but was more likely less than ten minutes, the cows cleared the way and let us pass. We breathed a sigh of relief.
I would agree that cows are not scary in general. But faced with a hulking behemoth that weighs a ton, the fear of being purposefully or accidentally trampled is an unavoidable one.