Cows' emotional lives

Like dogs, cows can cry. 

Non-human animals are conscious and can experience suffering. 

First, there are no known neural correlates of consciousness which are unique to humans. Second, non-human animals' responses to novel stimuli suggest a versatility which implies conscious thought. Third, reports on animals' communications show evidence of subjective experiences [1,2]. 

Accordingly, there is virtual scientific consensus on animal consciousness, as detailed in the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness [3].

In particular, cows express unique vocal cries and shed tears as a response to grief, fear, or distress [4,5,6]. This is reflected in the accounts of both animal scientists and dairy farmers [7,8,9]. 

Dairy cows cry when we take their babies away for milk.

[1] Bryant, Christopher. (2020). Exploring the nature of consumer preferences between conventional and cultured meat. University of Bath. https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/212811650/BRYANT_PhD_Thesis_Final.pdf 

[2] Griffin, D. R., & Speck, G. B. (2004). New evidence of animal consciousness. Animal Cognition, 7(1), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0203-x 

[3] Low, P., Panksepp, J., Reiss, D., Edelman, D., Van Swinderen, B., & Koch, C. (2012). The Cambridge declaration on consciousness. In Francis Crick Memorial Conference (Vol. 7). https://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf 

[4] Green, A., Clark, C., Lomax, S., Favaro, L., & Reby, D. (2020). Context-related variation in the peripartum vocalisations and phonatory behaviours of Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 231, 105089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105089 

[5] Green. A., Lidfors, L., Lomax, S., Favaro, L., & Clark, C. (2021). Vocal production in postpartum dairy cows: Temporal organization and association with maternal and stress behaviors. Journal of Dairy Science, 104(1): 826-838. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2020-18891 

[6]  Gillespie, K. (2016). Witnessing Animal Others: Bearing Witness, Grief, and the Political Function of Emotion. Hypatia, 31(3): 572-588. http://kathrynagillespie.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Gillespie_Witnessing-Animal-Others.pdf 

[7] BBC News. (2018, September 10). 'Some mothers will bawl for days'. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-scotland-45439303 

[8] Bates, M. (2014, June 30). The Emotional Lives of Dairy Cows. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2014/06/the-emotional-lives-of-dairy-cows/  

[9] Stockfree Farming. (2022). Thriving Beyond the Protein Transition: Farmer and Crofter Receptiveness to Stockfree Land Management. https://stockfreefarming.org/survey-report/