India Uncut

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Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Big Brother is watching cows

Patricia Nunan reports:
In a government-run shelter in India's capital, New Delhi, cows are undergoing what may seem a strange procedure, they are being forced to swallow microchips which remain permanently in one of their four stomachs.

With the use of special scanners, municipal workers can read the numbered microchips, identifying the cows and their owners.

In India, the cow is sacred as part of the Hindu religion's story of creation. But they are also a source of currency or collateral in the society here, and being able to count and track them is vital to some businesses.
Well, from a human point of view, I suppose it's all very sensible. Often, when I've lost something at home, I've wished that I could do a Google search for it, or press a switch and make it beep or something. So this is nice, and we can't, after all, afford to lose our cows.

But what do the cows feel about it, I wonder. Huh? Huh? Moo?

(Link via email from reader Jayakamal Balasubramani.)

Previous posts on cows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 , 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45.
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