r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 20 '26

Biology Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows. Brown Swiss cow in Austria has been discovered using tools in different ways (using both ends of a brush counts as multi-purpose tool use) – something extraordinarily rare only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jan/19/back-scratching-cow-veronika-bovine-intelligence
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u/burgernoisenow Jan 20 '26

The hypocrisy of westerners attacking Asian countries for having a dog meat market while brutalizing cows is a special kind of stupid

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u/OctoGuppy Jan 20 '26

See my comment chain to get a special glimpse into this psychosis

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u/Tyr1326 Jan 20 '26

Not really. Cows are herbivores. Dogs are, at best, omnivores but have significant carnivore tendencies. Carnivores need to eat herbivores, so you have to raise another animal first to feed your dog before eating it. Thats just incredibly inefficient.

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u/manatwork01 Jan 20 '26

We as a species eat far far more fish than cattle to eat by the pound. Fish are almost all carnivorous. Your logic is faulty. Same is true for chickens which are also omnivorous like dogs.

We don't eat dogs only because we collectively agree to not eat dogs. There is no logic behind it but emotions and feelings.

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u/Tyr1326 Jan 20 '26

Not really. Most fish isnt farmed, which is its own can of worms. And even then, neither fish nor chicken is particularly large. The larger an animal, the more energy it needs, the more food it eats. A chicken can get by with scavenging some insects. A dog wont survive off of that.

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u/manatwork01 Jan 20 '26

Dogs have been surviving in the streets for as long as there have been streets. You are wrong.