There's a lot more going on in cows' inner lives than we give them credit for. Cows are highly intelligent and deeply sentient and emotional beings with distinct individual personalities, and have been observed using tools.1 Every individual has a unique personality, and it’s fair to say not a single cow enjoys being mistreated for human meals. But how did they feel about becoming "things" when humans choose to ignore their feelings and treat them as unfeeling commodities?

In a rare and unique discussion of how colonialism in Southern Africa affected cattle's subjective historical experiences, Dr. Michael Glover, in his new book Cattle's Experiences of Colonialism: An Animal History of Southern Africa, positions cattle as sentient, feeling beings and takes their point of view about their subjective felt experiences. While most researchers and non-researchers alike have come to think that cows are indeed sentient feeling beings, the Ontario (Canada) Federation of Agriculture claims animals don't think or feel, despite clear scientific evidence that they do.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Cattle's Experiences of Colonialism?

Michael Glover: I wrote the book to create a credible record of what happened to cattle during the colonial era because that epoch established the blueprint for the mass commodification and normalized violence towards animals in Southern Africa. With a few exceptions, how colonialism affected and transformed the lives and experiences of cattle is excluded from historical research. But cattle felt, heard, saw, smelled, experienced, and were greatly affected by colonialism.

Cattle are sentient creatures with deep and complex emotions and acute sensory perceptions. I wanted to demonstrate and remember, feelingly, empathetically, and with detail and compelling evidence, that cattle too were targets of colonialism, that cattle bore and still bear tremendous consequences from the colonial intrusion into Southern Africa. That cattle are part of society, part of history, that cattle matter, that they are here with us, experiencing........

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