Why do cows have nose rings?

Interviewer: Why do they put nose rings on cows?

CowboyBenWade: You can't put a leash around a cow's neck - he won't know what to do with it. It's like trying to walk a cat on a leash, except instead of twenty five pounds, it weights a thousand pounds. You can pull your dog around on a leash because your bigger than he is, but if you had a hundred dogs on your leash all at the same time, they would would drag you around. That's kind of how it is with a cow.

Interviewer: I see, so the nose ring is to control the animal and make it do what you want.

CowboyBenWade: Exactly, most often nose rings are used on bulls because they are aggressive and don't want to cooperate. If you tie a rope to the nose ring instead of around the neck, the cow will follow you anywhere you want to go. He can feel a little pain if you pull on the nose ring, and he doesn't like that. If you pulled hard enough, you could pull it through the center of his nose, and that wouldn't be good. Firstly because you couldn't use a nose ring on him anymore, but also because it would damage his nose and cause him severe pain.

Interviewer: Aren't nose rings cruel?

CowboyBenWade: Some modern people might think so, but most of them have never had a cow of their own. They don't understand the nuances of leading them around, feeding them, and sometimes even milking them.

Interviewer: Are there any other uses for nose rings in cows?

CowboyBenWade: Yes, there is another use case, although I am completely against it, and I think it cruel.

Interviewer: What's that??

CowboyBenWade: Some unscrupulous cowboys in the the past have been known to put nose rings on calves to prevent them from sucking on their mothers. The metal part of the ring interferes with their ability to get milk.

Interviewer: That's very interesting. I thought only pigs had nose rings put on them.

CowboyBenWade: A pig's nose is more suited to the ring than a cow's nose, and a pig is a lower animal, so I don't feel as bad about it. So I wouldn't eat a pig the same way I would eat a cow.

Interviewer: How is that?

CowboyBenWade: Well, I can eat the whole cow, without having to worry. But a pig, there are large portions of it that I wouldn't want to consume. And pigs eat all sorts of nasty stuff, so when you eat a pig, it's kind of like you eating all that nasty stuff that it just ate. A cow is much more particular about its diet. It won't eat just anything - that's why I say it's a higher animal.

Therefore, I like to be more kind to higher animals, it's almost as if they deserve it. I would walk out my back door, see a cockroach, and I would immediately step on it and kill it. But if I saw a cat sitting there, even it if wasn't mine, I would love the cat. The cat is worth way more than the cockroach, and to be honest roaches are pests. With cows and pigs, the cow is the better animal, and this is partly because it's higher off the ground. That's kind of a general rule when it comes to making judgments like this.