Do Cows Have Free Will?
I was looking into the garden earlier and could see the leaves of my laurel hedge moving. I expected to see a bird fly out or hop about but couldn’t see what caused it. Then a nearby bunch of leaves moved and I thought it might be a squirrel inside, perhaps making its way along inside the hedge as I’ve often observed before.
So I wondered about what makes a squirrel go through bushes which I assume contain no food, using it as a route to somewhere. But this implies intent, planning and some level of intelligence. Do they have to be consciously intelligent for this, or are they about the level of cats, with the ability to make simple decisions and short term gratification of needs but no real self awareness.
Then I thought about cows; their lives are very simple: they stand in a field, eat the grass nearby and move on when they can’t reach any from the current spot. If they need to empty their bladder, they just do it with no preparation or thought. Even cats take the trouble to go to someone else’s garden to dump in their vegetable plot. Does this make cats more intelligent? They must have more spatial awareness than cattle as well as the ability to decide what to do next and to relocate if necessary before evacuation.
Cows have no need or ability to plan for the future. It’s very simple to shuffle along as the edible grass is consumed and even with no deliberate pattern to their grazing, they just lift their heads to see where there is some grass and walk there. At milking time they go where they’re urged and just follow the group.
I don’t suppose they wonder about where their lives are going or where it all went wrong. It’s a simple life but a short one. At its most basic, they do have a limited amount of “free will” within the boundaries of their field but it means nothing if they can’t give it all up and run away to join a circus.