Cows

In the Canada if you see cows they are safely behind fences and in barns. In India cows are as much a part of daily life as the trees and the roads. The farmers release them in the morning and they wander about, grazing on the garbadge piles that litter the sides of the streets, and in the evening the cows wander back to their farms. the farmers save money on cow food and the city get's its own garbadge disposal system.

Cows are not just in the neighbourhoods, but also on the highways. They sit in big clumps in the centre of the road and we all have to make room for them. In India cows are sacred so if you kill or hurt one of them you're in big trouble.

Of course sometimes cows and humans have a little trouble sharing space. The other day I saw a woman collecting garbadge in a bag (some people live off scavanging garbadge and selling it to factories and such for recycling) when a cow started eating from her pile. She hit the cow's flank with a reed until it walked away. And again just the other night we had gone out for sweet lemon juice and the worker at a fruitstand was slapping a cow away from his wares.

But normally the cows and the humans get along just fine, walking down roads together without any incident.