Domesticated animals? Maybe.

[swissie]

Seen on ZDF German Channel yesterday. I try to make this as short as possible.

- A pack of loose running dogs scared a herd of cows into panic. Cows ran through electric fence and headed straight for the nearby forest. Cattleman not worried: "They will eventually be back for dinner". Nobody showed up for dinner for 4 weeks.

- Cattleman & family decided to round up those rascals in the forest and show them who is boss.

BUT: On sight of a human, cows took immediate flight deeper into the forest. Same as a deer, that was never before close to a human !!!

Finally, it took 2 horseman to "push" them back to the farm, one by one. (Apparently, a cow sees the horse only as a harmless fellow grass-eater and disregards whatever is on the horses back).

Happy ending? No. Cows remained shy and "unmanageable" and were sent to the butcher after 2 weeks.

Puzzling to me is: After domesticating animals for 3 to 4000 years, is it really possible, they become "wild animals again" if out of sight of humans for 4 weeks ???

Or does this only apply to cows? Isolated incident?

I know that cattle see humans only once a year for the "round-up" in Australia, but they are considered "wild-animals" to begin with and not classified as "domesticated" as we understand it.

Anyone?

Cheers.