Anyone ever heard of "cow tipping"?

Question

I live in the south, and cattle ranches are abundant. I've always been told stories about going "cow tipping". The story goes like this: Because of a cow's enormous size and more importantly their weight they sleep standing up(supposedly if they lie down their weight will restrict their breathing and they will suffocate) Anyway, if you sneak out to a pasture at night and catch the cattle snoozing you can walk up to them, give them a shove and instead of waking up they will just fall over still asleep. I've never really belived this but people swear up and down that they have done it or "know someone who has". Anybody ever actually participate or can you discredit this story somehow?

Answer 1

Cow tipping, often considered an urban legend, is a pastime allegedly common in rural areas in which participants sneak up on an upright sleeping cow and then push it over for amusement.

There are factors which make the possibility unlikely at most;

1) cattle, unlike horses, do not sleep while standing.
2) based on the cow's weight and body structure, calculations of the necessary force show that the tipping by pushing is physically impossible for a single person and studies have shown that it would require four or five people to be able to do it so that the amount of force and feasibility of tipping would also be highly dependent upon the stance of cow at the moment
3) cows (as with most herd-prey animals) only take irregular naps throughout the day, but they are often surrounded by awake members of the herd, making them almost impossible to sneak up on as cows also are known to have superior fields of vision to humans, making them potentially very wary of intruders[citation needed] and it is unlikely that a group of four or five people could sneak up on a sleeping cow in a field then, and
5) Florida considered placing a ban on the pastime, indicating that there is at least enough evidence in favour of cow tipping's existence to present legislation.[citation needed] because some variants of this urban legend state that the cow is then unable to get up.

Answer 2

Actually, cows sleep pretty soundly, so you don't have to really sneak up on them, it tends to be sneaking around without the people who own them catching you. I've never actually tipped a cow, but it's real, and it does work. Sometimes they stay asleep, sometimes they get startled by their sudden "thud" when hitting the ground and wake up. Cow tipping is no myth or folktale, it's just a thing that very bored kids that live too far out in the country do. P.S. Always check for a bull first!

Answer 3

Ya, you betcha, happens in rural Wisconsin. Common activity for high school kids. And by the way, you don't just walk up and give them a shove. These beasts weigh too much for that. It takes a group of 4-6 strong kids. You start from about 30 yards away. 1-2-3 GO!!! You all run together and push the cow over. The farmer has to come by in the morning and pull the cow back up with a tractor.

Stupid? Yes. But it does happen.

Answer 4

I've never done it. I've seen a botched attempt in Tommy Boy--great movie. You should watch it. It's good research.

Cows do sleep pretty soundly, and I've heard that their knees lock or something when they're asleep so they don't fall over as an explanation for why they tip.

But I've never done it for a couple of reasons.

1. Cows are cool. I don't want to bother them.
2. Cows are enormous and can stampede. I don't want to bother them.

Edit: they don't generally sleep on their sides. But they kneel down and sleep stomach-down on occasion. It's supposed to be a sign of rain.

It doesn't suffocate them to lie down for a time on their side, but it's hard for them to get back up. They prefer bending their legs down and kneeling.

Answer 5

WOW! You must have been kept in a bomb shelter all of your life to not know this one!
1.) Yes people do it.
2.) Depends on the cow if it wakes up or not when you do push them over.

Answer 6

i've done it and its fun, but sometimes you can cause the cow to have a heart attack when it falls on the ground. "Some even die from the heart attacks". You just gotta be real sneaky about it because theres nothing worse than a mad cow

Answer 7

I can't believe people still believe this. Having grown up on a farm, I can assure you cows do NOT sleep standing up. Horses do, but not cows.

Answer 8

It is physically impossible to tip a cow. Their weight is more than a human can move.

Answer 9

Ya my older brothers used to do it in Central Oregon.. Guess they would drink beer and do it.. Poor COWS...

Answer 10

im from wisconsin, if you go through life without cow tipping, you know at least one person who has tipped a cow...or at least tried to.....apparently its harder than it sounds. ive never tried it but i know someone who did, and it didnt work