“Now get along, get hip little doggies
Cow Cow Boogie by Don Raye, Benny Carter and Gene De Paul, covered by The Judds
Get along, better be on your way.”
We all feel a bit queasy when we hear a vehicle has struck a cow or a calf, or even Alfie, on the Commons.
The high volume of traffic speedily criss-crossing our Commons every day concerns us, it’s so very visible, with headlights searching the valleys for miles around on dark evenings, but that’s the visible hazard, what about the emissions and toxic deposits left on the vegetation the cows then eat? Should we question the impact of that, not only on the health of the cattle, but also on us in the meat and milk we then buy?
The Guardian reported on a 2021 article by Ben Phillips and colleagues on the extent of road pollution in the UK, which revealed some shocking statistics and pointed out that the environmental impact of our ever-increasing road network is largely overlooked.
Should we focus on reducing cars, not cows? Should our Commons be a Low Emission Zone? What bothers you about the safety of our cows on the Commons? Please write to us, starting your message ‘TRAFFIC COWS’.
Regardless of whether or not you choose to eat beef, let’s all respect and care for our Commons. Try to walk or cycle when you can, and when you drive, consider not just the lives of the individual animals, but the environmental impact of a collision with a cow. If you hit one, you might as well just fill a fleet of shopping trollies with beef and then leave it to go off. And we simply cannot afford that level of waste.
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