Cow-hugging, an alleged wellness fad, has people cuddling farm animals to relieve stress

(FOX NEWS) -- In the increasingly hectic and stressful year of 2020, people are seeking calm wherever they can find it — from frolicking through the fields to adopting plants. But now there’s another natural way to restore your cortisol levels: cow-hugging.

People in several parts of the world have begun to embrace the alleged wellness trend, which reportedly originated in the Netherlands, where it is known as “koe knuffelen.”

According to the BBC, the practice of cuddling cows is supposed to reduce stress in humans by releasing the bonding hormone oxytocin.

A few years after I started working for the fire department in the city I grew up next to we got a call to assist the police with two cows that had kicked open the rear door on the trailer that they had been riding down the freeway in. Miraculously they were not seriously injured when they fell out. They had taken refuge in the brush and black berry bushes behind a Denny’s Restaurant. One of them had given itself up before we arrived. The other was munching on whatever greenery it could find.

When we arrived there were police cars everywhere. The guy who was in charge came over and said that they needed one of our ladders so that a sharp shooter from their SWAT team could get a good shot at the cow. I said let me find a bucket and some gravel and I will get that cow back into the trailer.

He replied, “NO! It’s too late for that! This is a dangerous wild range cow!”

I went over and talked to the lady who had been hauling the cows while my officer and the 3rd man provided the ladder the police had requested. She said that the cows were her neighbor kids’ 4H projects and that they had been raised on the 2 acres behind their house.

The police shot the cow about 10 times with .223 bullets before it finally fell over and died. It was very sad and cruel. I hope that no one ever told the girl that raised it what happened to her pet 4H cow. I am sure that she would have been heart broken.

Where I grew up, the cows owned the roads and the cars made way for them. When my kids were growing up we had a mini farm. Chickens, ducks, horse and goat. There was one red hen with a crooked neck and the other chickens ostracized her. So she and goat were best friends. She would sit on the goat's head and they just hung out together. Came back from a vacation and little red hen was missing, nowhere to be found. Kids broken hearted. Me too. About 3 weeks later, she came back through a hedge with ten little chicks. I watched her slip through the fence of the goat pen and parade those babies around the goat. The goat sniffed each one and the whole gang lived in her pen. Sweet stuff when have time to watch the littĺe creatures.

Where I grew up, the cows owned the roads and the cars made way for them.

Our place a “hobby farm”; we didn't really make money with it. My grandparents lived next door. My uncle who had purchased most of the horses competed in rodeos. But he was drafted and sent to Vietnam. Sadly, we lived on a busy road and we had a friend and pony killed when they were hit by a car. She was my friend's mother when he and I were only six. The Shetland pony she was on got spooked and ran straight up my grandmother's driveway into the path of a car. The speed limit on the road was 40 mph but the typical speed of cars and trucks was 50 to 60mph. We lost numerous dogs and cats over the years. Fortunately, cows are easier to see and typically do not make sudden moves into the path of traffic even when they have trampled the fence and are eating the delicious foliage along the side of the road.

When I was small, I rode around on the two Shetland ponys that we had, but I quickly graduated to a pony named “Lady” who was larger. I had a lot of good adventures with Lady. We seemed to have a bit of a symbiotic relationship like a boy and a dog. She seemed happy to see me and followed my direction easily when riding her. She was older and I do not remember why she died... I think that a visitor left the gate open to the field with the Apple and Pear trees and got one stuck in her throat. But it was a blow to me.

Cows survive that type of thing, but horses are more fragile. We would look out into the field and see a cow that had bloated to about twice its size. We knew that it had gotten into the orchard. My dad would shove the apple the rest of the way down the cows throat with a garden hose and the cow would deflate.

After Lady died and I started riding my uncles larger horses I fell off of them a lot because I almost never used a saddle and their tendency to run full speed back to the barn as soon as they were turned in that direction. Teachers at school pulled me aside frequently because they thought my parents were beating me because of all the black eyes and minor injuries.

My parents let some teenage girls from a family that were friends of ours come over and feed and ride the horses. The extra attention that they got from the girls caused them to become much more manageable. As recently stated my dads little brothers were the original owners of most of the horses but after they moved away the horses did not get much attention except from me and I provided more harassment than actual training.

As my sisters and brother got older they started taking car of the horses. My little brother actually put himself through flight school by shoing horses. He is still a captain for Southwest Airlines. Once I discovered the utility and safety of a ten speed bicycle as compared to a horse, I gave them up and eventually became a nationally ranked bicycle racer.

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