Swine will be fine. I've wanted a piggy pet. Politicians would be instantly shot.

Hmmmmm. I think they were actually born within the country. Uh huh.

I don’t think they are dairy cows. But bred for meat? I don’t know. I’m vegan. No meat. No dairy (and lactose intolerant too).

@graceylou ok free fertilizer bad to try and milk a bull lol

@bobwjr They were actually cows so I guess can be milked. There’s a bull in with them (did not get into my property). The ones that invaded my place were adult cows (females) and somewhat older calves. My horses provide plenty of fertilizer I think. We aren’t farmers but live in designated farm land. We run a pet boarding facility so it’s important that everyone is safe, including the cows.

@graceylou cool

Yup. That’s pretty much how it is around here. We’ve secured dogs on the lam quite often. Everyday there’s some animal or a whole herd on the loose. The neighbour cows have been pretty good at staying in their own pastures. Not sure what got into them today. May be the canola in the fields. We pretty much handle it ourselves before involving the authorities. My worry was mostly the cows getting onto the highway possibly causing accidents. My property is right on a secondary highway that can get pretty busy at times.

Beat me to it!

Ummmmm no. I’m vegan and my SO is mostly vegetarian. I just wanted everyone to be safe.

We have no such law. I won’t spend the money to put up a perimeter fence around my 17.5 acres because other people decided to get cows after years of only horses. Here, it’s their responsibility to keep their livestock confined to their property. I have utter dislike of barbed wire too. My horse got loose once and tried to get to a stallion next door. The stallion was getting himself hurt on their barb wire fence trying to get at my horse. I think my neighbour’s back fence is entirely barbed and the cows went through it. I remember the barbec wire fence from the loose horse incident.

@graceylou I agree, my horses are only in contact with smooth wire, yet they sometimes find a way to get cut up! Arrrgghhhh!

@DavidLaDeau Mine are not too bad. They stay pretty unmarked except when they get into it with each other. They are scared to death of the electric fence even if not hot, lying on the ground. Wouldn’t step over it even. My donkey isn’t bothered by the electric shock but she would stay with the horses anyhow. One of my horses got tangled up in barbed wire before she came to live with us. She’s got lots of nasty scars.

@graceylou Be careful of burros, they are stubbern as goats and will endure much pain to get where they want. The good thing is they do not often want to leave their herd so it is only a problem if they are left alone. They are like us herd animals.

P. S. I don't look like a cowboy, but am often accused of it, but I am a good hand.

@DavidLaDeau I’ve had Foxy for over 8 years now. My horses and she are inseparable although she tends to get loose more often. I’ve done lots of dicy horse/donkey wrangling since we got these girls. I know when Foxy is in a mode and I just don’t go into the pasture (I went to check on the horses in the middle of the night in winter when it was in the -40s and I had a head lamp on. Foxy didn’t recognize me and wanted to kill me so I knew not to go into the pasture). On the other hand, she’s like a dog so pretty easy to handle if she’s behaving (and you have treats).

@graceylou They are the greatest of watch dogs and alarms! Just make sure you feed them on time or the whole county will know you are late!

@DavidLaDeau We are in the country here. Everyone has horses, donkeys, chickens, ducks, dogs, cattle, goats, etc. Not everyone has all but we all have a combination of several. Plus there are coyotes and other wild animals. Noises are not an issue. We have train tracks across the highway so trains are passing by at all hours of the day and night. But yes, donkeys can be very loud, especially when they do it right next to your ear. Our house is quite a bit aways from the next houses so animal noises from one house are not so loud heard from other houses.

I know lots of people are hurt or killed by cattle. These escapees were all cows and their calves. They were skittish but not aggressive. But certainly they could hurt us if they wanted to. My horses are Arabs and they are smaller than most horse breeds. They could get hurt. I called the RCMP mainly because the cows were getting onto the highway and could have caused serious accidents. The horses were clumped together and staying out of the way. We wanted to move them to another pasture but the cows would probably follow.

@Antidronefreeman Just about everyone here is a cowboy or cowgirl. It would help if they were home to get their cows.

@graceylou
I grew up on an Arabian horse farm and know what they are like. They know where they are home. Bring in invaders, and they run for the varn even if it happens to be escaped cows invading their field.

@Holysocks They were pretty good after awhile. Mostly because they know these neighbour cows. They were just baffled that the cows were in the pasture with them not on the other side of the fence. They calmed down and started grazing along the cows.

@graceylou
A statement that humanity could learn from.

We have had one of the neighbour's horses jump over the fence and joined our girls. Luckily that horse went back over before we could do anything. The cows have been around for awhile now and no previous incidents like this occurred. I'm willing to bet this won't be the last time either.

@graceylou do you want a " guard" chicken. ? Lol

@Buddha I would love pet chickens (or guard ones) but don’t have a set up for chickens. Too many coyotes and foxes out.

The cows are not strangers to my horses because they usually hang out close to the fence on the other side anyhow. My horses were just unsure about them being on the same side eating their grass. We use electric fencing so repairs are not difficult though still annoying and we could have lost our horses if they got out.

@graceylou Oh ok, not so bad then. Glad your horses didn't run.