Cow Tipping

Factual Questions
1

Well, it’s happened again. I thought I was a good and sharp skeptic, but I’ve recently run into a debunking of a story that I had never thought to question.

According to Jr. Skeptic Magazine at http://www.skeptic.com, Cow Tipping is the bunk. As they explain it:

  1. Cows don’t sleep standing up.
  2. Cows are real light sleepers, and prone to cat nap for what little sleep they get.
  3. Cows have evolved to be alert for preditors, and as such are not easy to sneak up on.
  4. Even if the cow were deep asleep and standing up, it would still take a hell of a shove to tip one over.

Could anyone who has actually dealt with cows verify this information?

2

From the TM:

Cow Tipping

From Cecil:

Is there really such a thing as cow tipping?

From my own experience (city boy talkin’): think about it; have you never seen a cow lying on the ground?

3

From my own experience, and the somewhat exasperated explanations of my cow-owning amigo, Chris: People in the country go cow-tipping all the time. This is country slang for “getting drunk and laughing as the visiting city folk try to tip over cows.” You can’t really tip over a cow, unless you do the head-twisting move familiar to rodeo fans during the calf-wrestling event, and that’s kind of difficult.

4

Oddly enough, horses do sleep standing up, although they do “lie down” occasionally. I would think a horse would have a much higher center of mass, making it easier to tip–plus, it sleeps standing–and I’ve never once heard of “horse tipping.”

5

Cows evolved to be alert for preditors? Perhaps, but they have been bred by man to be eaten and or milked. Getting close to one is not that hard to do.

Do they sleep standing up? I wouldn’t call it sleep, but they do go into kind of a shut down mode. For the most part they are content to eat and lounge around, they get fatter that way.

It takes two drunken city boys to properly tip a cow, farmers kids frown upon it. When two guys are hitting the cow like linebackers the cow can be forced to unnaturaly
balance on legs on the same side of the cow. This can cause one of the legs to break (rarely, but it can happen).
The cow then has to be put down and you got one pissed off farmer.

6

I’ve seen it done.

I can provide the names of the people who did it. Not numbers, however - highschool was along time ago.

It took ALOT of pushing. The cow was not pleased.

Al.

7

Cows may be easy to get close to, but they are very aware of you stalking around, especially at night when real danger may be near. Nobody who has had anything to do with cows beleives in cow tipping, for good reason. Enough said; it’s been debunked to death.

8

Sorry, I don’t buy it. I grew up around cows. First of all, they sleep lying down. Second, if you come across a sleeping one they wake up easily and quickly. And finally, they are damned heavy. An average-sized cow weighs over 1,000 lbs, and can be close to 2,000. That’s like tipping over a Toyota that doesn’t want to be tipped. And if you try and force them off balance, they will, like all other animals, move their legs to KEEP Their balance. So you can’t just get a bunch of drunken idiots together and shove. You’d have to HIT the cow, quickly.

Good luck. People have died hitting cows with their cars. Let me know how your shoulder feels after you ram into one.

9

Please do not tip our cows.

They get paid on commission, & don’t need tips. :wally

10

Actually I’ve tipped cows on a couple of occasions although not as explained. You don’t do it while they’re standing out in a field. Ocassionally when I get a cow ready (wash her udder) she’ll kick at me with a back leg. When they do this they shift most of their weight to the other side so it is quite easy to grab the kicking leg and lean and push with your shoulder and flip her on the side. Note : I’m about 240 lbs and use to working around them I wouldn’t suggest you try this yourself.

11

I’m in the “getting drunk in a field” camp. I’ve seen this trick done a few times. Ever heard of Snipe Hunting? Same principle. Take unfamiliar city folk out into a field and laugh your ass off from afar while they run around approaching angry bulls. Probably not the safest drunken activity around.

Isn’t there a physics problem with this anyway? I mean, think of knocking over a four legged table. You can’t just SHOVE it. You’d have to lift it from the bottom a little and push it over.

Wouldn’t a 1500 pound animal get hurt if it hit the ground as dead weight? Ever heard of any farmers filing for insurance against cow injuries?

-L

12
      • I agree with this and similar posts. Except for that upper weight figure. 2000 sounds kinda high, most dairy cows I’ve seen (in my area) go 1000-1200 or so.
  • The other reason it’s a not-real-bright thing to do is that there is a small chance that the cow will get really pissed off, and that is not a good time to find out that 1)-cows can run faster than people, and 2)-even if they got no horns, cows are perfectly willing to knock you down and trot on your hide, and 3)-bones will be broken if they do so, and it won’t be the cows’ bones. Cows are not toys, they are way bigger than you and can kick your ass all the way into the ICU if they feel like it. - MC
13

Cows might be easy to approach in the daytime, if you are their farmer, but not if you are a stranger, or if it is at night. The one time I tried to approach cows (I’m afraid of them, actually), they kept moving away from me even though I was with the girl who owned them. And cows can move frighteningly fast for large animals. Eventually one did come to her, and she called me over to look at and touch it (desensitization therapy, I guess - while I was rubbing its face, it licked my arm and I nearly wet my pants from fear, so it didn’t work out).
Anyway, cows are BIG! And they are mobile - if you push up against one, it can move out of your way. Or it could crush you under its slimy hooves.
Why anyone would be dumb or bored enough to think cow tipping is good fun is beyond me.

To me, people like funneefarmer who work with cows every day are equivalent to the crocodile hunter - bravely facing the unknown dangers of large and unruly animals.

14

I dated a cow for two years and she told me how, when she was a child growing up in the poor south east, kids would come along and yell “Hey Cow, we’re going to tip you over tonight!” This kind of thing continued throughout her life. In fact, that’s how we first met. I was walking home from school with a gaggle of geese, when out of the corner of my eye I saw those boys harassing my future girl. I ran over and chased them away, and we were friends instantly.

Of course, this didn’t stop them from trying to tip her over. Whenever they got the chance, they would run up to her and puuuushhhh real hard. Then they would all laugh and run away yelling “Weeeeeee Doggies!!!” as is customary in the south. Then she would sob, and I would hold her and say “It’s OK Janine, they can tip you over, but you’re still my Cow.”

You know, people are so insensitive. Do they ever think how a “fun” little stunt like cow tipping can break up a relationship?

After several months of this, Janine and I finally called it quits. She just couldn’t handle the fact that I was one of “them” and was convinced I was just getting close to her so I could knock her over.

I’ll never forget her hot, snorty kisses and the way her tail would swat the flies away on those hot summer nights. And whenever I am in a Midwestern kitchen, I get all choked up when I see one of those cow pattern cookie jars.

I love you Janine, wherever you are…

15

That’s vaguely disturbing

16

why hasn’t anyone broached the ethics of doing this to the poor animals?

imagine if someone attacked you while you were sleeping!

think of the cows…won’t somebody pleeeease think of the cows!

17

I have tipped cows. However, we only do it under controlled circumstances and for medical reasons, and we call it “casting”. One person, can, in fact tip a cow if you have a rope and know what you’re doing, but we usually prefer to have at least two, preferably three, on hand.

18

Cow tipping?

Fifteen percent, of course!

Oh, wait, …

Never mind.

19

When I was in high school, a couple of my friends and I used to tip a couple of my friends’ grandmother’s cows now and then. This was before people knew about “urban legends”. We heard about it, and thought we’d try it, and it not only is quite possible, but also quite funny. I agree that it is along the lines of a snipe hunt for city folk, but it does work, and does happen, same as a snipe hunt. That’s why I am amused as hell when I see people who have probably never seen a cow try and prove that it can’t be done by the general reasons of the OP:

Cows don’t sleep standing up. True, but as jaybee said, at midnight in the middle of noplace, cows with little money and less to do tend to zone out on their feet.

Cows are light sleepers. Don’t know about that one as it’s not tough to walk up to a cow when they are zoning.

The Predator thing… that’s the funniest expanation I’ve ever seen. If there is a less skittish animal on the planet besides a cat, I’d like to know what it is. While this may be partially true for your standard half wild herd of 10,000 Angus head, it’s a load of BS when it comes to your standard herd of 8 milk cows. (It’s a little known fact that farmers send their 8 year old daughters to Green Beret training to stealthily approach a cow at 4 A.M. for milking).

A couple of kids couldn’t tip over a 2000 pound cow. Yeah, a couple of teenagers have never gotten a 67 chevy that weighs twice that much moving with a good shove when they ran out of gas. And an old chevy has a much lower center of gravity (and I’m convinced, more brains) than a cow.

Cow Tipping has only been debunked in internet theory. Is it easy? Not really. Is it always effective? No. Can it actually be done? Yes. Has it been done? Many times. A couple of football players with a beer or a few too many have done it many a time.

Maybe we were just too stupid to know that it was supposed to be a Snipe Hunt, but it can be done, has been done, is being done, and will continue to be done in certain areas, simply because cows are stupid and so are teenage boys drinking beer. Cite all the debunking “studies” you can find. I’ve been there, done that. In cow country it may be BS, but in non-cow country, cows can be tipped, and a cow being tipped is awfully funny.

And for the record, no cows were ever harmed during my experience in tipping.

20

Not sure what you mean here. So, where there are cows, tipping is BS, but where there are no cows, it’s possible?
Anyway, here’s my suggestion on tipping a cow: Go out with a buddy, have him sneak up behind the giant, snoozing beast, get down on all fours about two inches away from its hind legs. You line yourself up about 30 feet in front of the cow, so as to get up a nice head of steam when you start your run toward the animal. When you’re about 7 feet away, you let out a blood-curdling scream to snap the cow out of its zone. Then, as you’re sprinting full-kilter, you put your arms out and shove the animal with every last ounce of strength you can muster. As you hit the cow, the force will shove it backward to where your friend has been kneeling in wait, knocking the hind legs out from under the beast, and successfully knocking it to the ground! Yay!

Happy