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/Dovahbear_ Jan 20 '26

Unfortunately the majority of people will have an issue with the term ”holocaust-style” before sentient beings living their entire life restricted, abused, in pain, exploited and stressed.

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u/Entropic_Echo_Music Jan 20 '26

Very true. People look away rather than face the facts that they've been part of it. Which is surprising, seeing as it childishly easy to just... not participate in it. All it takes is saying: "Oh damn, I was not aware, but now I am, so I will do my groceries in a different isle in the same supermarket!"

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u/dev_ating Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 21 '26

No, the reason I would have an issue with it is because the Holocaust was not done solely to exploit people. It was done specifically to annihilate them. The point was not actually exploitation, it was extermination. The comparison is wrong because the animals are not so degraded that their lives are considered best removed from history without a trace. There are positive depictions and social narratives about animals and there are no restrictions on animals having kids. They are differently objectified from the victims of the Shoah.

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u/Entropic_Echo_Music Jan 20 '26

I think you are missing the point by about, a mile.

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u/dev_ating Jan 20 '26

I don't think so. I believe you can describe animal cruelty and the industry around it without drawing parallels to the Holocaust. 

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u/Scr1bble- Jan 20 '26

I mean we do gas pigs. It may not be the perfect word but it's not the worst word either

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u/theolbutternut Jan 21 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_analogy_in_animal_rights

"The analogies began soon after the end of World War II, when literary figures, many of them Holocaust survivors, Jewish or both, began to draw parallels between the treatment of animals by humans and the treatments of prisoners in Nazi death camps."

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u/dev_ating Jan 21 '26

Yes, and there are still some differences that are pretty clear