At least a dozen cows in a Swiss town have this week, quite literally, been airlifted to greener pastures because they could not make the journey by hoof due to injury or age.
The BBC reports that this is an annual occurrence, usually at the beginning of autumn in a town called Klausenpass. The cows are transported via helicopter from pastures near the mountain pass which is around 1 950 metres above sea level.
However, the helicopter ride is reserved for some of the herd that would otherwise struggle with the walk down the steep mountainside.
According to Global News, they are not exactly getting a first-class ticket.
They are strapped into a mesh harness and suspended in the air by a cable that’s attached to a helicopter. One by one, they’re transferred down the mountain.
Did the cows catch feelings?
Farmer Jonas Arnold told Sky News: “One reason for the helicopter transport is that you can’t reach some pastures by car, and the other is that some cows are injured, so they don’t have to walk all the way down.”
This caused The Cut, a US online publication, to wonder whether the cows knew where they were going. Do they understand helicopters as a concept? Do the land-bound cows gaze up at their airborne friends with jealousy?
“I didn’t ask a cow how it feels after such a flight as it couldn’t answer, but it’s only a short distance and it has to keep going,” Arnold reportedly told Global News.
The farmer added that the cows seemed relatively unfazed by the trip.
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