– One of the bull calves was dead when we got to the barn. He had bled from his nose, mouth and ass. It is a sign that something has broken. Small pieces of metal, probably from a tin can, had sneaked into the feed of the bull calf “Ferdinand”. He died of internal bleeding that same night. – You shouldn’t humanize animals, they are and will be animals, but what will it take for people to understand how serious this is, asks farmer Tina Brennbakk, here with another calf. Photo: Ole-Christian Olsen The night before, Brennbakk’s husband had taken care of the evening cleaning on the farm in Hattfjelldal. When he scooped up the remains of the feed lying on the ground, he found bits of metal. But I thought there was probably nothing wrong. – Once it had to hit us too. Although we have picked out pieces of metal in feed in the past, it had to go wrong in the end, says Tina Brennbakk. Suffers a painful death “Ferdinand” had been cut in many places inside, both in the abdominal wall and the lungs. Photo: private – It is fine that there is a financial loss, but one can only imagine what the night has been like for the bull. Animals that have eaten metal cans slowly but surely bleed to death. Metal cans in the fields are a big problem for many farmers. The result can be that cows suffer a painful death. In one day, farmer Harald Lie found 30 boxes in the fields on Tufte farm in Våle in Vestfold and Telemark. Photo: Harald Lie Earlier this year, news told about farmer Harald Lie who picked over 200 metal cans from his field. Tina Brennbakk despairs that beer and soda cans end up in the grass that is used as fodder, and is tired of people not taking it to heart. – I get mad that people can’t understand. There has been so much focus on the fact that such things should not be in nature. Not picked up by metal detectors Today there are countless beverages that come in metal cans – beer, soft drinks and energy drinks just to name a few. When they are thrown onto a field, they first go through a threshing machine. Then the boxes are torn up and get a lot of sharp edges before they end up in a round ball together with the grass. Which in turn goes out as feed for the cows. The empty cans are not picked up by the metal detector on the harvesting equipment because they are aluminium. The only solution is to stop using the metal boxes, the farmer believes. The empty boxes are cut up into small pieces when the grass is cut. Which in turn goes out as feed for the cows. Photo: Lars Eie / news – It is the sure way to death, regardless. It hurts, because we do our best to ensure that they are well, she says and continues: – I wish that those who write the animal protection law could point it out a little more, that such boxes should not be in the wild. Several thousand cows Last year, foreign bodies were reported 1,194 times in cows, according to figures from the Cow Control According to Tine’s report “Statistical collection for cow and goat control 2019”, 1,216 dairy cows were treated after ingesting foreign bodies through the feed in 2019. – We hear about this far too often. Every year, cows die or have to be euthanized because of soft drinks or beer cans that are thrown along the roads, says Egil Hoen, who is deputy chairman of the Norwegian Farmers’ Association. – If we don’t get a change in littering, then we have to start working for a ban. It is not up to the Norwegian Farmers’ Association, it is a political issue, says Egil Hoen of the Norwegian Farmers’ Association. Photo: Norges Bondelag – There is a deposit on these boxes, so it should be easy to return them to the shops. It is very difficult to say why people give up in the consequences, he adds. Hoen says that the Farmers’ Association has started a new campaign to shed light on the harmful effects metal cans have on our livestock. – We see along the roads that there is a lot of rubbish being thrown where it absolutely shouldn’t be. It’s a big problem. We have to put an end to it, or we have to ban the boxes. It’s not up to the Norwegian Farmers’ Association, it’s a political question, says Hoen Wrote the calf’s life story Farmer Tina Brennbakk took to social media to draw attention to the increasing number of animal tragedies that occur because people can’t stop throwing metal cans into nature. In an emotional post, she writes the story of the tiny bull calf that was born on 13 October last year. – You shouldn’t humanize animals, they are and will be animals, but what will it take for people to understand how serious this is. Think of Ferdinand the next time you throw the box out of the car window.
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Will ban metal cans – the bull Ferdinand was cut open inside – news Nordland
