Cow tipping

A cow lying on its side

Cow tipping or cow pushing is the purported activity of sneaking up on a sleeping, upright cow and pushing it over for fun. As cattle do not sleep standing up, cow tipping is a myth.

Myth and reality

According to the myth, cattle are slow-moving, slow-witted and weak-legged, and can easily be pushed over without much force, both because they have a high center of gravity, and because they sleep standing up. However, despite the widespread legend of tipping cows, numerous publications have debunked the practice's feasibility. Cattle only rest while standing up, rather than sleeping that way, and they are easily disturbed. Additionally, they represent over a half ton of weight that would easily resist a lesser tipping force. A variety of calculations have been performed to determine if cow tipping is physically possible.

A study led by Margo Lillie, a doctor of zoology at the University of British Columbia, concludes that cow tipping—by a single person—is impossible. Her calculations found that it would take at least two people to apply enough force to push over a cow if the cow does not react and reorient its footing. If the cow does react, it would take at least four people to push it over, according to the results. Lillie notes that, contrary to the nature of the myth, cattle are well aware of their surroundings and are very difficult to sneak up on, due to excellent senses of both smell and hearing.

In contrast to the reality of the cow-tipping myth, horses do regularly sleep standing up due to a locking mechanism of their stifle joint, a trait cows do not possess.

History

Julius Caesar and Pliny record a belief that European moose had no knee joints and could not get up if they fell over. This belief may relate to the ancient custom of trapping moose in steep-sided pits.

In 1255, Louis IX of France gave an elephant to Henry III of England for his menagerie in the Tower of London. Drawn from life by the historian Matthew Paris for his Chronica Majora, it can be seen in his bestiary at Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with an accompanying text revealing that at the time, Europeans believed that elephants did not have knees and so were unable to get up if they fell over. The bestiary contains a drawing depicting an elephant on its back being dragged along the ground by another elephant, with a caption stating that elephants lacked knees.

News

In April 2008, four men in Naples, Florida, who were arrested for damaging a gate to a communications tower in an open field, told police deputies that they had gone into the field and tipped over a cow. However, police stated this was impossible because there were no cattle within several miles of the field.

Popular culture

Cow-tipping has appeared in a variety of media and entertainment.

• In several of the post-apocalyptic RPG games from the Fallout series, the player character can attempt "Brahmin"-tipping, Brahmin being a two-headed radiation-induced mutant species of cow.
• Rivers Cuomo sings in the opening line of the 2008 Weezer song "Everybody Get Dangerous" that he "used to go and tip cows for fun."
• In the 2006 animated movie Barnyard, a group of tough talking cattle from New Jersey go "boy-tipping" in response to similar behavior against cattle.
• In another 2006 animation movie, Cars, characters go "tractor-tippin'".
• In a 1994 episode of the popular animated television series Beavis and Butt-head, the two titular characters, after watching a milk ad on television, set out to tip over a cow, only to result in Beavis being crushed when the cow falls on him.
• Cow-tipping is also featured in the 1989 black comedy Heathers, as well as the 1995 Chris Farley-David Spade comedy film Tommy Boy.
• The Maryland Lottery/Bovines Unite, Famous Dave's restaurants ("Angus with attitude") and Coffee Mate television ads have all featured cows engaged in people-tipping.
• The Official Cow-Tippers Handbook by Red McCoy and Duke Righteous is another example of how this urban legend has seeped into popular culture.
• The country band The Little Willies in their 2006 self-titled first album features a song called "Lou Reed", with lyrics about having seen Lou Reed cow-tipping.
• The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS features cow-tipping, which humorously produces milk-shake when the cow is milked.

See also

• Outhouse tipping
• Sacred cow (idiom)

External links

• The Register article debunking the myth of cow tipping while drunk by Lester Haines
• Cow Tipping at Curlie
• The Straight Dope on Cow Tipping
• The Cow Tipping Myth Debunked by a Veterinarian