In rural Paraguay it is common for a household to own a cow or two and for some to own many more than that.
Those animals are often to be seen tied up along roadsides or in gardens chomping away on the grass. As well as representing an investment a cow can also provide a family with milk and cheese.
For someone with a milk cow one of the very first jobs every morning is to milk it, and then once that has been done it must be taken to pasture.
Every day the cattle must be taken to and from pasture for at night they are bought back to the house to be tied to a tree or a post over night where they can be watched over. A cow is far too valuable to a family to be left in some distant place over night.
These cows must also be attended to during the day as in being succured with ropes they cannot seek fresh grass once all that is within reach has been eaten or take themselves to water.
These cows on the whole other than eating the odd plant or trampling the odd flower bed cause no one any trouble.
The same unfortunatly cannot be said of households that have aquired over time far more cows than they can provide pasture for. Sometimes as with my neighbour who grazes his cattle some days on my land there is nearby land that can be borrowed or rented. More often though this is not the case.
Then the cows have to make do with roadside verges or any scraps of unused land. Sometimes these will be tied with ropes to stop them straying but more often they are not.
Instead they form into little herds that wander along the road and into any garden lacking a fence or gate.
Obviously this is far from ideal as a cow is a large beast that would do a lot of damage to any vehicle in collision with it.
In addition a cow is not the brightest of animals so one standing in the middle of the road is liable to just stand there as traffic approaches requiring everyone to weave their way around it, hoping the animal will not suddenly startle and either spring into their course or cause others to stampede.
Unsurprisingly cows cause road accidents every year. When ever I approach loose cattle I always slow down and give them a wide berth.
The greatest danger comes at night when little herds that have not been taken home for the night walk the streets and would give a motorist arriving round a bend little chance of avoiding them.
These is periodicaly talk of bringing in laws that would result in the confiscation of cattle but so far this has not been done and if ever it was inforcement would probably prove very difficult.
And just one final note. No I don’t have a cow of my own. Apart from anything else having a cow as a pet is far more of a tie that would make going away for even a night than a cat or dog would be. They are quite incapable of doing anything for themselves.
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