UK ‘Nazi’ cows culled for aggressiveness

A farmer in Britain was forced to kill most of his herd of super muscular cows, favored by the Nazi’s during the Third Reich, because the beasts were too aggressive to handle, The Guardian reported on Monday.

Derek Gow, from the county of Devon in south-west England, said the cows were made into sausages after they were deemed a threat because of their repeated attacks on farm workers.

”The ones we had to get rid of would just attack you any chance they could,” Gow said, though he noted there were no injuries. “They would try to kill anyone. Dealing with that was not a lot of fun at all. I have worked with a range of different animals from bison to deer and I have never come across anything like these. They are by far and away the most aggressive animals I have ever worked with.”

The cows were from a breed known as Heck cows, named after the German zololgist brothers Heinz and Lotz Heck who in the 1920’s and ’30’s tried to recreate the fabled auroch, a massive bovine creature that stomped across Europe and north Africa until hunting made it extinct in the seventeenth century. Nazi party members became interested in the cows that featured in Teutonic mythology and encouraged the brothers in their efforts.

The Heinz’s breeding program drew on a variety of domesticated cows said to be descended from the original auroch — including Spanish fighting bulls — and successfully produced the Heck. Although smaller than an auroch, Heck cows share the same muscular build and aggressive spirit which pleased Nazi propagandists who planned to release the beasts into the wild for game hunting.

After World War II the cows fell from favor due to their Nazi connection, and were mostly slaughtered for food with a few samples preserved on conservation sites.

Gow brought 13 cows to England in 2009 to study and photograph. He successfully bred them, increasing the size of his herd to 20 until the animals, that boast formidable horns, became too dangerous to maintain.

“To get them into the trailer to get them off the farm we used a young and very athletic young man to stand on the ramp and they charged at him before he quickly jumped out the way,” Gow recounted.

However, six of the cows were far more gentle than the others and have been kept alive and grazing on the farm.

“Some were perfectly calm and quiet and they are the ones we have kept,” Gow explained. “The others you could not go near.”

With the troublemakers gone the farm has settled down into a more pastoral routine.

“Since they have gone it is all peaceful again. Peace reigns supreme,” Gow said. “Despite these problems, I have no regrets at all. It has been a good thing to do and the history of them is fascinating.”