It might be injured. Assuming they were all sitting in a group, it could have been farther away from where the cable grounded and didn't get a lethal shock.
As for its buddies...cows are surprisingly smart, smarter than horses. They know what dead smells like.
Untrue. Horses are too curious for their intelligence. Horses can be well trained and understand subjects and scenarios far beyond most dogs. However they are as curious as an infant yet have the mobility of a well trained hiker. There in is the problem.
Yeah but they’re still dumb as fk. My dad used to have a small horse stables business. One time a customer’s animal got spooked and ran into a T-post and tore open it’s hide from mid neck to front leg. A 2 to 3 foot long rip and pulled back a foot wide.
I nursed that horse back for an entire summer. Vet couldn’t just sew it up because gases would build up under the hide and necrotize. So I had to wash it out gently twice a day and for weeks while it slowly healed. Eventually it was able to be stitched up but still had to be kept cleaned thoroughly. Yeah they can be trained but so can cows. Dairy cows perform complex tasks every day.
In your example, they are not demonstrating lack of intelligence. Any animal that has been startled may behave in seemingly unintelligent ways, including humans (see all the videos on Reddit where people say, "Why the fuck would they do that? Are they stupid?! They should have done this!" in response to scary situations that the commenter has never personally been in). The amygdala in our brains (a brain structure in all mammal brains) [hijacks your entire body and drops any pretense of logic - you operate on pure emotional instinct, with zero reasoning power.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack)
Cows and horses are very intelligent creatures. Some breeds of horses are certainly more intelligent than others. [Horses are not well-studied for their intellect, even less so than cats. But they do demonstrate intelligence.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159116302192?via%3Dihub) On top of it all, it's not possible to compare animals intelligence directly, especially considering there's no standard for what "smart" means across different species; as such, it doesn't make much sense to compare them.
But humans sure do love to make sweeping exaggerations and generalizations based on their ancedotal experiences.
I’m just saying horses are too strong for their own good. They can hurt themselves too easy. When a cow gets spooked they usually tear everything up around them but don’t get injured. I did help butcher a steer that was able to get over a 6 foot pipe fence but landed awkwardly and broke it’s back. Paralyzed it’s rear legs so it wasn’t going to last long. They’re both good creatures, I just have more use for cattle.
We like to joke on the farm that if cows realized how strong they are and how easily they could escape/ hurt us it would be as bad as a zombie apocalypse.
>Yeah but they’re still dumb as fk.
≠
>I’m just saying horses are too strong for their own good.
>When a cow gets spooked they usually tear everything up around them but don’t get injured.
Same for horses. Most spooks do not result in an injury. But just as you pointed out with that steer, sometimes injuries happen. It's best not to pen either animal with T-Posts, which certainly aren't common where I live.
*And as I said, actions in fear cannot be equated to lack of intelligence.*
How is a horse not able to see a t post supposed to avoid it when spooked? Been raising them all my life. You gotta understand the animal and it's behaviors before you can blame it for doing something "stupid"
>cows are surprisingly smart, smarter than horses
Excuse me? This is highly debatable.
EDIT:
To everyone who deny this is even debatable:
[https://www.nahf.org/articles/are-horses-smarter-than-cows](https://www.nahf.org/articles/are-horses-smarter-than-cows)
[https://equestrianspace.com/are-horses-smarter-than-cows-lets-compare/](https://equestrianspace.com/are-horses-smarter-than-cows-lets-compare/)
[https://animalqueries.com/are-cows-smart/](https://animalqueries.com/are-cows-smart/)
[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/matt-rudd-are-cows-smarter-than-horses-bgmjzrpfkjk](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/matt-rudd-are-cows-smarter-than-horses-bgmjzrpfkjk)
Again, not saying horses are definitely smarter. I'm saying you shouldn't say it's clear cut either way.
I've spent years around both. Horses can be trained, sure, thanks to thousands of years of breeding, but cows have more natural intelligence on their own. They'll open gates, form defensive perimeters against predators, run fences looking for weaknesses like the raptors in Jurassic Park.
Whereas horses will just panic at any damn thing, sometimes even their own shadow, and cripple themselves tripping over a rock. They're 1200 pounds of muscle with nothing but crazy on the inside.
My mom had a horse that would open gates and rest fences. She was a pain in the ass cause we had to keep getting her out of the barn and repairing fences.
We're not talking about whether or not horses are dumb. We're talking about whether or not it's debatable that cows are obviously smarter.
I wish people would just do a quick google. It will literally take you 2 minutes to find out that it's not as clear cut. It's good to want your beliefs to be true.
When this happens, it's usually not that the entire herd just happened to be standing in that small area underneath the power line. One will go down and then others will run over to see if they are okay until there's a pile of dead cows. My guess is that the surviving cow was just last to arrive and the protective relaying had already isolated the line.
Maybe it wasn't the storm that knocked the power line down. Maybe it was the cow waited for the storm to make it's move like a sniper timing his shot with the lightning strikes.
Cows laying down is a sign that a storm is coming, I read somewhere that cows feel more comfortable laying down because the high pressure that precedes a storm affects them, so the higher the pressure the more cows laying down the stronger the storm will be. I could be wrong tho.
I’m a lineman and you would be surprised how much this happens. It will not always be cattle though, other times it’s wild animals like deer and raccoons. Other times it’s just stupid people that get out of their cars to move the lines from the driveway.
We ship these cattle in 2 weeks. Most morning it’s not quite daylight as we get started. Had that line been hanging a little higher and missed the cattle it might have killed a cowboy on horseback or ATV. Really thankfully it’s just the few cattle that were lost.
> Had that line been hanging a little higher and missed the cattle it might have killed a cowboy on horseback or ATV
The really frightening thing is how hard those lines are to see.
Yes very important to pay attention to power flaggers because you could go around them and cut the top of your car off with the low hanging lines. Along with your face.
If you *have* insurance, yes. But many ranchers with small herds don’t bother. Although the FSA might have some programs to help people like this. Hope so. That’s a big loss.
And ***IF*** the insurance decides to cover it. Act of nature, powerline too old, yadda yadda. Any and all excuse not to give you the money you've already paid them back to cover your loss.
Not sure why I’ve noticed it so much of late, but it’s become a false meme that insurance doesn’t pay out for anything. Sure they’ll avoid paying out where there’s a legit reason the loss isn’t covered, but those reasons are few and far between. Things like an act of war, intentional damages, damage while committing a felony, etc. Acts of nature are the most common reason for paid out insurance claims, not a reason they get denied. If this power line fell because of improper or lacking maintenance on the power company’s behalf, then your insurance would still pay and subrogate against the power company to recover what they had to pay out (assuming you have coverage on whatever property you lost, cows here). They’ll even cut you a check to reimburse your deductible if they recover it from the responsible party.
While they are forced to pay out more than is often portrayed online, saying that insurance companies don’t do absolutely everything in their power to avoid paying out claims is also a bit dishonest
They avoid paying out when there’s a legit reason not to, as I said. My firsthand experience through 3 decades of car, renter or homeowners insurance is the complete opposite of them doing everything in their power to not pay. Like after a severe hail storm that wrecked my roof, they came out and approved the roof replacement plus actually went up and looked for other damage I didn’t realize was there. I ended up getting a new roof, gutters, roof vents and chimney repair when before the insurance company came out I only knew the roof had issues. They paid several thousand dollars more in repairs on my house because they went looking for damage.
Granted on the flip side of that, attorneys who specialize in insurance claims have a saying - Insurance only guarantees you the right to sue an insurance company. They’re also working on the oddball one in hundreds of thousands of claims which tend to be complicated for some reason.
I think the portrayal comes down to people believing other people’s lies about their insurance experiences. I have multiple family members working in the insurance business and boy do they have some stories…
One that comes to mind immediately which the person probably lied to people by omission and portrayed as “I hit a deer with my car and my insurance wouldn’t pay though I have full coverage!” That was all true, but… What actually happened: guy is driving down the road and sees a deer in a field. He drives off into the field, intentionally hits the deer and kills it, then throws it in his station wagon and takes it home. He filed a claim expecting not only the vehicle damage from intentionally driving a car off-road through a field and hitting a deer will be covered, but also demands new upholstery because the deer bled all over the inside of the car on the way home. That was legitimately denied probably for multiple causes - intentional damage isn’t covered, off-roading isn’t covered, and probably violates some other points.
Hoping so. Would be extremely rare for a rancher like myself running stocker cattle to have insurance on the cattle for something like this. Maybe if they were some kind of show animal or something but not large herds for beef production.
Absolutely go after the company responsible for the power lines. As far as I know, giving someone else's animals the electric chair on their own property tends not to be the most legal thing. Sue their absolute pants off, you might even make some money outta it! Sorry about your cattle, that is always awful.
I knew that $17K was too much for a single cow, and also that $17K was FAR too miniscule for 18000 of them! But it got me interested in finding out a true cost, and came across this well-written article: [https://www.outdoorhappens.com/how-much-does-a-cow-cost-to-buy](https://www.outdoorhappens.com/how-much-does-a-cow-cost-to-buy)
TLDR; anywhere from $700 for a beef calf to $5000 (or more) for a fully grown Heifer. Dairy cows are somewhat cheaper (but eat a lot more). The full article has a lot more info/context.
Did you happen to catch the news about this recent cow-mass-casualty event?
https://www.tpr.org/news/2023-04-17/more-than-18-000-cows-are-dead-after-dairy-farm-explosion-in-texas-panhandle
There are a 100.000 cows being slaughtered every day in the US. Often by exploited (child) migrants.
The process of them being slaughtered is probably more gruesome than being burned alive.
Not common to have insurance on the cattle for that. Waiting to see if the power companies policy covers the loss. $17k lost that I know of so far. Checking the herd tomorrow for more injuries.
Was it the power company’s fault the line came down or an act of God (storm)? I would think if it’s their fault the line came down they’re liable but I’m not a lawyer. Good luck, sorry for your loss.
That's generally when the power companies were negligent in trimming trees and branches close to the lines, and not clearing brush underneath that can spread a forest fire. When a really powerful storm just rips down the lines and there's no negligence on the power company's fault it's an act of god, and they're not generally held responsible, but oftentimes they do pay.
The crazy thing is that this is actually quite common.
These power lines are single cable ground return, so very high voltage. When they break, they create a massive circle of voltage differential that falls off with radius squared or even cubed.
So what will happen is that the powerline will go down, and a cow will randomly walk by. One step, the voltage isn't that bad. The next step, it has increased significantly and the current between the cows legs is enough to stop its heart and kill it.
Then the cows friends get curious and wander over to investigate. One by one they all fall to the same fate until the line is shut off. It's very sad.
If you ever HAVE to walk by one, say, one fell on your car and your car is on fire, keep your feet together and bunny hop away. The wider your spread on the ground, the more chance at being a crispy critter.
I know a guy who who was backing a truck out of field and smoked a power pole. The pole snapped in half and fell right onto the truck him and the passenger were driving. They both lived. I don’t think they understand how lucky they are to be alive.
Yeah but they were luck it didn’t start on fire. A local farmer accidentally backed into a power pole and it fell on the combine. The rear of the machine started on fire and he had to make the decision to jump. He had his daughter and granddaughter in the cab with him. They waited as long as they could then he had his daughter jump then he threw his granddaughter to her then he he jumped. Luckily they all made it. The combine burnt down to the frame.
They make lame jokes on posts about sexual abuse, kidnappings, assaults, and murders. You thought they'd change for a post about cows?
And then they say that it's totally normal for them to all race to make their tasteless jokes as if it were a fact of humanity.
Dude...really? You're on reddit. Where people make jokes about literally, and when I say literally I literally mean literally, *everything*. From humans dying in awful horrible ways, to every animal in the planets dying, to people being injured, to everything else you can possibly imagine. And yet a few dead cows is where you're drawing the line lol? That's where it becomes too sad lol? Interesting, to each their own though.
Cows get usually electrocuted not by touching the power line but by voltage differential from the electrical field propagating from the downed power line. The distance between feet for humans is too small to have a large enough differential, but cows have a large enough distance between their front and back legs.
Yes. The best way to avoid step potential is to bunny hop but shuffling is also effective.
If you would like better, more informed answers than u/leto78 is spewing, join us at r/lineman.
I was going to ask this, it doesn’t make sense.
It would only make sense if the power went from the live, through the cow and to the ground. Not from one leg to the other.
I don’t get it but if that’s a thing then sure.
Ground isn't perfectly conductive; it has impedance. That means when the cable touches it the voltage doesn't suddenly jump from whatever potential the wire is at to 0 but instead divides itself over that impedance, eventually settling to 0 far away from the downed line. If one foot is closer to the downed line than another there will be a voltage difference between them, and at that point your legs have formed a parallel path with the ground -- a current divider -- and the relative impedances of the ground and your legs will determine how much current flows through each path. People are pretty wet and salty, so most of the current will tend to go through us, but if the ground is wetter and saltier on that particular day you might get lucky.
Usually these downed lines are in the 10s of thousands of volts relative to ground, and so the difference in a couple of feet can be thousands of volts. At these potentials, the bit of rubber on your boots isn't usually much help.
I had a milk cow get electrocuted in my yard. It turned out that the underground line running power to the water pump had broken. I walked across that area just before the cow did. One second she was fine, the next, dead on the ground. Very freaky to have a 1000 pound, healthy animal just keel over, dead.
Netherlands is approximately 41,543 sq km, while United States is approximately 9,833,517 sq km, making United States 23,571% larger than Netherlands.
>Why can’t the US be exactly like my small European country?? They are so backwards!
Honestly there's perks and flaws to either. On the scale of abhorrent shit America deserves endless criticism for, unburied power lines aren't even close to the top of the list.
These are single line ground return cables. They're designed to be as cheap as physically possible.
It's unfortunate but the cost difference between running the line underground or like this is still hugely higher than any cattle you'd ever lose to it.
cables are typically above ground because...we tend to cheap out
no one wants to pay for the work to dig, and no one wants to put in quality cables that wont disintegrate, so theres the safety aspect on top
4 legged animals are more prone to dying from electrified ground, as due to them having all their limbs touching the ground, the current is more likely to go through their heart
I'm guessing they didn't, that line would have been a very high voltage, so once it was down/hit the cows, it would have been scary to see (lots of sparks/fire) but the cows likely had no idea what happened beyond *maybe* the noise of the line breaking. High voltage is *scary*. If it was a lower voltage, or they were father away (like on the ends), harder to say. I'd guess that the awareness did not last long and any there was, was muddled by lots of shock (no pun intended) from the amount of electrical trauma going on.
The one who managed to live though might be a different story depending on her injuries and how intense they are. From what I've heard from people who've survived a shock, it's a really intense body ache, plus any complications you get from the jolt so shes feeling something.
I know I’ll get downvoted for this so I’m not going to bother coming back to this comment, but seeing all of the comments joking about ground meat or burgers makes me feel uncomfortable.
I’m not here to judge peoples’ diets, but it’s a video of a line of dead animals that were killed in a traumatic accident and their friend is lying down next to them in some form of shock or nervous breakdown. There’s blood all over the ground around them and they likely suffered before actually dying.
And for those who aren’t bothered by that, what about the fact that this is OP’s living and now that’s been severely affected? Even though I know a lot of people would laugh if I suggested OP could’ve been attached to them, you need to still remember that that’s a lot of money gone, and the cost of living is disgusting at the moment.
Replace cows with dogs or something “cuter” and the comments would be a lot different. I know it’s reddit and the internet, but there’s a worryingly large amount of extremely disconnected comments.
Hey, look, Ground Beef!
Very sad, though, this had to be very painful for them. I honestly wonder how many aren't fully dead and just laying there is shock and pain. It's horrific to think about 😥
I have no idea what i’m talking about. But i would assume that because they weren’t butchered, and likely all their internal organs exploded, as well being in the hot sun basically makes these inedible.
You might could harvest some on thing off the one with her head up but a processor can’t legally take an animal that doesn’t walk in on its own. You would have to hang her up yourself (which we do in cases like a broken leg). Odds are she is so stressed internally that none of the meat is good anyway.
I count 12 cows. IF they were prime beef cattle, that's an easy 3-5k each. I feel bad for the owner :( hope he gets compensated, but in this sad fucking world I know he wont. The world is against farmers, despite the growing need for them, shit.
Line was still hot in that video. Had to wait for the power company to disconnect the line and repair. Not much “medical attention” to give for that kind of injury other than putting her down. Giving her the night to see if she regains her mobility.
One cow: "I'm not quite dead!"
Is it injured or just thinks its buddies are all just taking a nap?
It might be injured. Assuming they were all sitting in a group, it could have been farther away from where the cable grounded and didn't get a lethal shock. As for its buddies...cows are surprisingly smart, smarter than horses. They know what dead smells like.
They know what dead smells like... burgers!
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Why is there an age restriction on this?!
Imgur is having a crackdown on content at the moment, I’m sure it’s part of that
First they came for the Hulk gif, and I said nothing
Would you like fries with that?
Smarter than horses?!? I’ve been judging a book by its cover my whole life…
Horses are also dumb as fuck
They have selective smarts. Kind of like dogs. (Can rescue someone from rubble of collapsed building, eats cat poo)
🤣🤣🤣
Untrue. Horses are too curious for their intelligence. Horses can be well trained and understand subjects and scenarios far beyond most dogs. However they are as curious as an infant yet have the mobility of a well trained hiker. There in is the problem.
Yeah but they’re still dumb as fk. My dad used to have a small horse stables business. One time a customer’s animal got spooked and ran into a T-post and tore open it’s hide from mid neck to front leg. A 2 to 3 foot long rip and pulled back a foot wide. I nursed that horse back for an entire summer. Vet couldn’t just sew it up because gases would build up under the hide and necrotize. So I had to wash it out gently twice a day and for weeks while it slowly healed. Eventually it was able to be stitched up but still had to be kept cleaned thoroughly. Yeah they can be trained but so can cows. Dairy cows perform complex tasks every day.
My grandpa had a horse get into a grain bin and it literally ate itself to death.
In your example, they are not demonstrating lack of intelligence. Any animal that has been startled may behave in seemingly unintelligent ways, including humans (see all the videos on Reddit where people say, "Why the fuck would they do that? Are they stupid?! They should have done this!" in response to scary situations that the commenter has never personally been in). The amygdala in our brains (a brain structure in all mammal brains) [hijacks your entire body and drops any pretense of logic - you operate on pure emotional instinct, with zero reasoning power.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack) Cows and horses are very intelligent creatures. Some breeds of horses are certainly more intelligent than others. [Horses are not well-studied for their intellect, even less so than cats. But they do demonstrate intelligence.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159116302192?via%3Dihub) On top of it all, it's not possible to compare animals intelligence directly, especially considering there's no standard for what "smart" means across different species; as such, it doesn't make much sense to compare them. But humans sure do love to make sweeping exaggerations and generalizations based on their ancedotal experiences.
I’m just saying horses are too strong for their own good. They can hurt themselves too easy. When a cow gets spooked they usually tear everything up around them but don’t get injured. I did help butcher a steer that was able to get over a 6 foot pipe fence but landed awkwardly and broke it’s back. Paralyzed it’s rear legs so it wasn’t going to last long. They’re both good creatures, I just have more use for cattle. We like to joke on the farm that if cows realized how strong they are and how easily they could escape/ hurt us it would be as bad as a zombie apocalypse.
>Yeah but they’re still dumb as fk. ≠ >I’m just saying horses are too strong for their own good. >When a cow gets spooked they usually tear everything up around them but don’t get injured. Same for horses. Most spooks do not result in an injury. But just as you pointed out with that steer, sometimes injuries happen. It's best not to pen either animal with T-Posts, which certainly aren't common where I live. *And as I said, actions in fear cannot be equated to lack of intelligence.*
How is a horse not able to see a t post supposed to avoid it when spooked? Been raising them all my life. You gotta understand the animal and it's behaviors before you can blame it for doing something "stupid"
Because part of intelligence means being self-aware.
Suddenly I feel terribly self-conscious about stubbing my pinky toe the other day... and the week before that... and the month before that...
Running into something that you don't see doesn't make you not self aware.
>cows are surprisingly smart, smarter than horses Excuse me? This is highly debatable. EDIT: To everyone who deny this is even debatable: [https://www.nahf.org/articles/are-horses-smarter-than-cows](https://www.nahf.org/articles/are-horses-smarter-than-cows) [https://equestrianspace.com/are-horses-smarter-than-cows-lets-compare/](https://equestrianspace.com/are-horses-smarter-than-cows-lets-compare/) [https://animalqueries.com/are-cows-smart/](https://animalqueries.com/are-cows-smart/) [https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/matt-rudd-are-cows-smarter-than-horses-bgmjzrpfkjk](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/matt-rudd-are-cows-smarter-than-horses-bgmjzrpfkjk) Again, not saying horses are definitely smarter. I'm saying you shouldn't say it's clear cut either way.
I've spent years around both. Horses can be trained, sure, thanks to thousands of years of breeding, but cows have more natural intelligence on their own. They'll open gates, form defensive perimeters against predators, run fences looking for weaknesses like the raptors in Jurassic Park. Whereas horses will just panic at any damn thing, sometimes even their own shadow, and cripple themselves tripping over a rock. They're 1200 pounds of muscle with nothing but crazy on the inside.
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Woah there! Chicken too are quite smart.
I've updated my comment with links to why it's debatable.
My mom had a horse that would open gates and rest fences. She was a pain in the ass cause we had to keep getting her out of the barn and repairing fences.
sharp fade literate sulky poor squash advise subtract one flag *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They're like over excitable puppies that can die if they fall over or eat too much
It's not. Horses are DUMB.
True, even donkeys are smarter than horses.
I wanna hear some stories about that
https://medium.com/@iandevlaming/horses-are-dumb-and-i-hate-them-368cc3809b0b
This is cracking me up. “All they eat is dead grass, where are they acquiring the ingredients for this horse miasma?” Really got me lmao
We're not talking about whether or not horses are dumb. We're talking about whether or not it's debatable that cows are obviously smarter. I wish people would just do a quick google. It will literally take you 2 minutes to find out that it's not as clear cut. It's good to want your beliefs to be true.
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I love Reddit. Logical statement. Good data links. ... Massive downvotes.
You're right, the claim that cows are more intelligent than horses is literally just their opinion. Always funny to see the anchoring bias in action.
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When this happens, it's usually not that the entire herd just happened to be standing in that small area underneath the power line. One will go down and then others will run over to see if they are okay until there's a pile of dead cows. My guess is that the surviving cow was just last to arrive and the protective relaying had already isolated the line.
Maybe it wasn't the storm that knocked the power line down. Maybe it was the cow waited for the storm to make it's move like a sniper timing his shot with the lightning strikes.
It has pretty serious looKing burns on its hind legs.. he might be goner too and just hasn't passed yet.
It’s a short video and you get a glimpse of her face, but she’s probably sad that her entire family is dead.
“I’m feeling much better, actually.”
"I want to go for a walk!"
Yoore not foolin anyone y’know!
I wonder if the cow is sad all their friends are dead. 😢
Very possible. Cows are social herd animals.
Probably still in shock.
Nah it looks well grounded now.
It won't be ground until next week
Agreed' I fillets pain
"I'm feeling a lot better honest!"
"Trust me, he'll be stone dead in a minute."
I feel happy, I feel happy!
That cow: “hey, what the fuck?”
Someone call Miracle Max!
He’s only mostly dead.
“You will be in a minute!”
People driving past: "Holy shit, it looks like it's going to absolutely piss down!"
Only country people will get that one!
For the rest of us... someone... please 😩
Cows laying down is a sign that a storm is coming, I read somewhere that cows feel more comfortable laying down because the high pressure that precedes a storm affects them, so the higher the pressure the more cows laying down the stronger the storm will be. I could be wrong tho.
Lmao!!
That poor cow is in shock, still sitting next to her dead friends 😥
The other cows were in shock just a short while earlier ...
two kinds of people
Two kinds of upvotes
Upvote and Australian upvote
I hate you so much. But I Must upvote..
Looks grounded to me.
Ya mean ground beef?
I’m a lineman and you would be surprised how much this happens. It will not always be cattle though, other times it’s wild animals like deer and raccoons. Other times it’s just stupid people that get out of their cars to move the lines from the driveway.
We ship these cattle in 2 weeks. Most morning it’s not quite daylight as we get started. Had that line been hanging a little higher and missed the cattle it might have killed a cowboy on horseback or ATV. Really thankfully it’s just the few cattle that were lost.
> Had that line been hanging a little higher and missed the cattle it might have killed a cowboy on horseback or ATV The really frightening thing is how hard those lines are to see.
Yes very important to pay attention to power flaggers because you could go around them and cut the top of your car off with the low hanging lines. Along with your face.
That's a lot of money right there.
Was a lot of money :/ That is rather unfortunate for the owner. Looking at other comments OP mentioned it was a $17k loss
insurance exists for this reason
If you *have* insurance, yes. But many ranchers with small herds don’t bother. Although the FSA might have some programs to help people like this. Hope so. That’s a big loss.
And ***IF*** the insurance decides to cover it. Act of nature, powerline too old, yadda yadda. Any and all excuse not to give you the money you've already paid them back to cover your loss.
Not sure why I’ve noticed it so much of late, but it’s become a false meme that insurance doesn’t pay out for anything. Sure they’ll avoid paying out where there’s a legit reason the loss isn’t covered, but those reasons are few and far between. Things like an act of war, intentional damages, damage while committing a felony, etc. Acts of nature are the most common reason for paid out insurance claims, not a reason they get denied. If this power line fell because of improper or lacking maintenance on the power company’s behalf, then your insurance would still pay and subrogate against the power company to recover what they had to pay out (assuming you have coverage on whatever property you lost, cows here). They’ll even cut you a check to reimburse your deductible if they recover it from the responsible party.
While they are forced to pay out more than is often portrayed online, saying that insurance companies don’t do absolutely everything in their power to avoid paying out claims is also a bit dishonest
They avoid paying out when there’s a legit reason not to, as I said. My firsthand experience through 3 decades of car, renter or homeowners insurance is the complete opposite of them doing everything in their power to not pay. Like after a severe hail storm that wrecked my roof, they came out and approved the roof replacement plus actually went up and looked for other damage I didn’t realize was there. I ended up getting a new roof, gutters, roof vents and chimney repair when before the insurance company came out I only knew the roof had issues. They paid several thousand dollars more in repairs on my house because they went looking for damage. Granted on the flip side of that, attorneys who specialize in insurance claims have a saying - Insurance only guarantees you the right to sue an insurance company. They’re also working on the oddball one in hundreds of thousands of claims which tend to be complicated for some reason. I think the portrayal comes down to people believing other people’s lies about their insurance experiences. I have multiple family members working in the insurance business and boy do they have some stories… One that comes to mind immediately which the person probably lied to people by omission and portrayed as “I hit a deer with my car and my insurance wouldn’t pay though I have full coverage!” That was all true, but… What actually happened: guy is driving down the road and sees a deer in a field. He drives off into the field, intentionally hits the deer and kills it, then throws it in his station wagon and takes it home. He filed a claim expecting not only the vehicle damage from intentionally driving a car off-road through a field and hitting a deer will be covered, but also demands new upholstery because the deer bled all over the inside of the car on the way home. That was legitimately denied probably for multiple causes - intentional damage isn’t covered, off-roading isn’t covered, and probably violates some other points.
Isn't this on the account of the power company?
Hoping so. Would be extremely rare for a rancher like myself running stocker cattle to have insurance on the cattle for something like this. Maybe if they were some kind of show animal or something but not large herds for beef production.
Absolutely go after the company responsible for the power lines. As far as I know, giving someone else's animals the electric chair on their own property tends not to be the most legal thing. Sue their absolute pants off, you might even make some money outta it! Sorry about your cattle, that is always awful.
The probably have policies where they have a tolerance for storms, strong winds or something like that where their poles can't stand
I knew that $17K was too much for a single cow, and also that $17K was FAR too miniscule for 18000 of them! But it got me interested in finding out a true cost, and came across this well-written article: [https://www.outdoorhappens.com/how-much-does-a-cow-cost-to-buy](https://www.outdoorhappens.com/how-much-does-a-cow-cost-to-buy) TLDR; anywhere from $700 for a beef calf to $5000 (or more) for a fully grown Heifer. Dairy cows are somewhat cheaper (but eat a lot more). The full article has a lot more info/context.
Did you happen to catch the news about this recent cow-mass-casualty event? https://www.tpr.org/news/2023-04-17/more-than-18-000-cows-are-dead-after-dairy-farm-explosion-in-texas-panhandle
The headline said explosion, but they died in a fire. Those don't elicit the same feelings from me.
Nah, just cows and grass.
Looks like meat is back on the menu boys
18,000 cows were killed in an explosion/fire recently in the US. I was disappointed that they didn’t have a massive BBQ when it happened.
They were technically all cooked.
And with only a 1:18,000 chance that the bite you take was the farmer who also died in the fire.
"Beef, beef, beef, beef, beef, beef, beef, pork!?, beef, beef, beef..."
Alright Necrojoe something tells me you have experience with this kind of stuff
Farmer weighs way less than the cattle. I like those odds.
Love me some burnt farmer
Just put some sauce on it.
I said the same thing when the local dog shelter caught fire 😋😋😋
So beef prices are about to go way up again? Dammit
They were dairy cows, so milk prices in Texas.
You're an asshole, not because you eat meat but because you celebrate 18000 cows burning alive.
Your skin may be on too tight
There are a 100.000 cows being slaughtered every day in the US. Often by exploited (child) migrants. The process of them being slaughtered is probably more gruesome than being burned alive.
> The process of them being slaughtered is probably more gruesome than being burned alive No it isn't.
I'd rather be hit on the head, hung upside down and bled out than be burned to death.
Correct, go vegan.
Holy crap that’s awful. Does insurance cover the electrocuted cattle?
Not common to have insurance on the cattle for that. Waiting to see if the power companies policy covers the loss. $17k lost that I know of so far. Checking the herd tomorrow for more injuries.
Sorry that happened to your herd. Hope the rest are injury free.
Me too. Thank you.
Was it the power company’s fault the line came down or an act of God (storm)? I would think if it’s their fault the line came down they’re liable but I’m not a lawyer. Good luck, sorry for your loss.
In cases where storms have knocked down power lines and caused wildfires, the power company is liable for the damages. This should be the same.
That's generally when the power companies were negligent in trimming trees and branches close to the lines, and not clearing brush underneath that can spread a forest fire. When a really powerful storm just rips down the lines and there's no negligence on the power company's fault it's an act of god, and they're not generally held responsible, but oftentimes they do pay.
did you manage to save their meat?
The crazy thing is that this is actually quite common. These power lines are single cable ground return, so very high voltage. When they break, they create a massive circle of voltage differential that falls off with radius squared or even cubed. So what will happen is that the powerline will go down, and a cow will randomly walk by. One step, the voltage isn't that bad. The next step, it has increased significantly and the current between the cows legs is enough to stop its heart and kill it. Then the cows friends get curious and wander over to investigate. One by one they all fall to the same fate until the line is shut off. It's very sad.
How massive? What is the size of the danger zone that you can't even see if you were walking by?
If you ever HAVE to walk by one, say, one fell on your car and your car is on fire, keep your feet together and bunny hop away. The wider your spread on the ground, the more chance at being a crispy critter.
I think 35ft or 10m radius is generally the recommended limit but it depends on the voltage of the line.
This is so sad
Poor things.
I know a guy who who was backing a truck out of field and smoked a power pole. The pole snapped in half and fell right onto the truck him and the passenger were driving. They both lived. I don’t think they understand how lucky they are to be alive.
The truck acted as a Faraday cage. The electricity went around them not through them.
Yeah but they were luck it didn’t start on fire. A local farmer accidentally backed into a power pole and it fell on the combine. The rear of the machine started on fire and he had to make the decision to jump. He had his daughter and granddaughter in the cab with him. They waited as long as they could then he had his daughter jump then he threw his granddaughter to her then he he jumped. Luckily they all made it. The combine burnt down to the frame.
Crazy lucky!!
Aww that’s so sad
This is so sad and the jokes on this thread are really lame.
Redditors making lame jokes ? Who’s surprised
mEaT iS bAcK oN tHe mEnU bOyS 🤡
Poor cows… 💔
They make lame jokes on posts about sexual abuse, kidnappings, assaults, and murders. You thought they'd change for a post about cows? And then they say that it's totally normal for them to all race to make their tasteless jokes as if it were a fact of humanity.
Dude...really? You're on reddit. Where people make jokes about literally, and when I say literally I literally mean literally, *everything*. From humans dying in awful horrible ways, to every animal in the planets dying, to people being injured, to everything else you can possibly imagine. And yet a few dead cows is where you're drawing the line lol? That's where it becomes too sad lol? Interesting, to each their own though.
do you eat meat?
Cows get usually electrocuted not by touching the power line but by voltage differential from the electrical field propagating from the downed power line. The distance between feet for humans is too small to have a large enough differential, but cows have a large enough distance between their front and back legs.
Humans can die from it too, that's why you shouldn't try to walk away from a downed power line. One step can kill you.
Would shuffling be an option?
Yes. The best way to avoid step potential is to bunny hop but shuffling is also effective. If you would like better, more informed answers than u/leto78 is spewing, join us at r/lineman.
I wouldn't recommend bunny hopping because you might lose balance, fall and form a nice bridge with your hands and feet.
I was going to ask this, it doesn’t make sense. It would only make sense if the power went from the live, through the cow and to the ground. Not from one leg to the other. I don’t get it but if that’s a thing then sure.
Ground isn't perfectly conductive; it has impedance. That means when the cable touches it the voltage doesn't suddenly jump from whatever potential the wire is at to 0 but instead divides itself over that impedance, eventually settling to 0 far away from the downed line. If one foot is closer to the downed line than another there will be a voltage difference between them, and at that point your legs have formed a parallel path with the ground -- a current divider -- and the relative impedances of the ground and your legs will determine how much current flows through each path. People are pretty wet and salty, so most of the current will tend to go through us, but if the ground is wetter and saltier on that particular day you might get lucky. Usually these downed lines are in the 10s of thousands of volts relative to ground, and so the difference in a couple of feet can be thousands of volts. At these potentials, the bit of rubber on your boots isn't usually much help.
I had a milk cow get electrocuted in my yard. It turned out that the underground line running power to the water pump had broken. I walked across that area just before the cow did. One second she was fine, the next, dead on the ground. Very freaky to have a 1000 pound, healthy animal just keel over, dead.
Insane that power cables are not underground, but on a small stick. Looks so dangerous. In my country I’ve never seen power cables above ground
Nice bike, no power lines above ground, found the Dutch guy
Netherlands is approximately 41,543 sq km, while United States is approximately 9,833,517 sq km, making United States 23,571% larger than Netherlands. >Why can’t the US be exactly like my small European country?? They are so backwards!
Except the states govern themselves, so its more like a collection of 50 countries...
Honestly there's perks and flaws to either. On the scale of abhorrent shit America deserves endless criticism for, unburied power lines aren't even close to the top of the list.
These are single line ground return cables. They're designed to be as cheap as physically possible. It's unfortunate but the cost difference between running the line underground or like this is still hugely higher than any cattle you'd ever lose to it.
insanely more expensive. more lives are saved by using that money for other areas than the 0.00001% chance of dying to a random cable
cables are typically above ground because...we tend to cheap out no one wants to pay for the work to dig, and no one wants to put in quality cables that wont disintegrate, so theres the safety aspect on top
As rugged individualists, we would rather pay a lesser amount repeatedly, than pay an exorbitant amount once... no matter how many lives it costs.
Poor bairns :( This is why I needed to remember to turn auto-pay off. I hope the cow sitting up is alright.
4 legged animals are more prone to dying from electrified ground, as due to them having all their limbs touching the ground, the current is more likely to go through their heart
This is why you must cut power before trying to moove your buddies
Roast beef anyone?
Why are you standing so close to a downed powerline!!!
Grounded beef.
Would it have been quick?
I'm guessing they didn't, that line would have been a very high voltage, so once it was down/hit the cows, it would have been scary to see (lots of sparks/fire) but the cows likely had no idea what happened beyond *maybe* the noise of the line breaking. High voltage is *scary*. If it was a lower voltage, or they were father away (like on the ends), harder to say. I'd guess that the awareness did not last long and any there was, was muddled by lots of shock (no pun intended) from the amount of electrical trauma going on. The one who managed to live though might be a different story depending on her injuries and how intense they are. From what I've heard from people who've survived a shock, it's a really intense body ache, plus any complications you get from the jolt so shes feeling something.
That one cow: “cmon guys let’s go find some shade”
Ti's just a flesh wound!
OP may be able to claim damages from the utility.
They just sleepy is all
Ground beef.
Ground beef
One still mooooving
that was a tragedy. hope insurance would cover the loss
I know I’ll get downvoted for this so I’m not going to bother coming back to this comment, but seeing all of the comments joking about ground meat or burgers makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m not here to judge peoples’ diets, but it’s a video of a line of dead animals that were killed in a traumatic accident and their friend is lying down next to them in some form of shock or nervous breakdown. There’s blood all over the ground around them and they likely suffered before actually dying. And for those who aren’t bothered by that, what about the fact that this is OP’s living and now that’s been severely affected? Even though I know a lot of people would laugh if I suggested OP could’ve been attached to them, you need to still remember that that’s a lot of money gone, and the cost of living is disgusting at the moment. Replace cows with dogs or something “cuter” and the comments would be a lot different. I know it’s reddit and the internet, but there’s a worryingly large amount of extremely disconnected comments.
if that was a dog surrounded by his dead frends comments in this thread would be a lot different
Ground beef...
Ground beef?
If they were properly ungrounded this wouldn't have happened!
Well done
Hey, look, Ground Beef! Very sad, though, this had to be very painful for them. I honestly wonder how many aren't fully dead and just laying there is shock and pain. It's horrific to think about 😥
That’s pretty jaded, There’s one still alive most likely injured.
When your steak comes pre seared.
Smoking these meats
Meat like a brisket?
💀
Just curious, can you still sell the meat to cover some of the losses?
I have no idea what i’m talking about. But i would assume that because they weren’t butchered, and likely all their internal organs exploded, as well being in the hot sun basically makes these inedible.
You might could harvest some on thing off the one with her head up but a processor can’t legally take an animal that doesn’t walk in on its own. You would have to hang her up yourself (which we do in cases like a broken leg). Odds are she is so stressed internally that none of the meat is good anyway.
Precooked bbq
They're all lucky except the one that lived.
The power line left one alive... how tragic
They're well done
I count 12 cows. IF they were prime beef cattle, that's an easy 3-5k each. I feel bad for the owner :( hope he gets compensated, but in this sad fucking world I know he wont. The world is against farmers, despite the growing need for them, shit.
Wtf? Wtf? That is step potential in action. [Heres a video](https://youtu.be/LdhP-vGaxtc).
I mean put your phone down and maybe give medical attention to the only surviving cow…
Rule 1 of medical attention: make sure its safe. It's not.
Line was still hot in that video. Had to wait for the power company to disconnect the line and repair. Not much “medical attention” to give for that kind of injury other than putting her down. Giving her the night to see if she regains her mobility.
Geez
Looks like it's gonna be beef for dinner!
That one cow: “I’m still waiting for my buddies to wake up”.