Resources & Archives NEAVS' Cowch Purchase Helps Put Obsolete Vet Training Out to Pasture (Summer 2000) — People who take one look at a Cowch™ designed and sewn by Helga Tacreiter, invariably take a second, and a third. Her life-sized soft sculpture floor pillows look exactly like real live cows, right down to their soft noses and velvety tongues. Tacreiter's Cowches came about when she decided to take a second and a third look at her choice of career: dairy farm worker. For months, she had watched tearfully as the calves of the dairy cows she cared for were shipped off to slaughter. Then lightning struck - literally! After six cows on the farm where Tacreiter worked were struck by lightning and killed, she scrimped and saved and came up with the money to buy their orphaned calves to spare them from slaughter. The calves were saved, but Tacreiter's finances were in jeopardy. As she struggled to come up with a way to feed her hungry herd, she was saved by what some would describe as bovine intervention. Harvey Wallbanger (so named because he was injured in the same storm that claimed his mother and, as a result, was most unsteady on his hooves) gave Tacreiter a pattern for success. Tacreiter came up with the idea of selling cow-shaped "pillows," but only got as far as buying some fake fur fabric. She was at a loss as to what to do next, when Harvey slipped away from the herd and stood placidly while she draped him in fabric, creating the pattern for the first Cowch. It was a quick transition from pasture to "pillow" and the orders started to roll in. The sale of her Cowches helps Tacreiter care and provide for her own herd of rescued cows who will live out their lives safe from slaughter-houses and the cruelty inherent in dairy farming. Since the Cowches are life-like and emotionally appealing, NEAVS recently purchased a Cowch to donate to Lara Rasmussen, DVM, of the Western University College of Veterinary Medicine in Pomona, CA. The Cowch (a black-and-white Holstein yearling) will fittingly be auctioned off at Western's black-tie benefit, "A Tribute to Caring." As part of the college's precedent-setting plans to use animals only in ways that benefit the animals, Dr. Rasmussen's future goal is to have a Cowch fashioned as the "exterior" of a rectal palpation cow model. Cows are frequently used repeatedly for such veterinary training, said Dr. Rasmussen, and the process is extremely painful and stressful for the animals. This realistic, engaging non-animal model will provide veterinary students experience in large animal internal examination and palpation, and will be an ideal non-animal teaching model. "NEAVS has long known that there 'is a better way'," said Dr. Rasmussen. "This time, NEAVS is using a wonderfully detailed, very creative Cowch to prove it!" Note: If you would like to order a Cowch of your own, visit Helga's Web site at www.cowch.com, call 1-856-455-6637 or email: helgacowch@mindspring.com. An article about Cowches appeared in People magazine, Sept. 2, 1996. Back to UPDATE 2000 Series, Vol. 1, No. 2 Summer mainpage.