State Fairs Using Fake Cows for Milking Demo Out of Fear of “Bird Flu”

Man, this is like going to a strip club full of blowup dolls.

What is the damn point?

Reuters:

In Michigan this year, where dairy workers and herds have fallen ill from bird flu, a pair of unlikely prized cows are being prepped to take the state fair stage.

State fair organizers are this year featuring Milkshake and Buttercup, two life-sized fiberglass cows complete with rubber teats and water-filled udders, for a popular milking demo.

The head of the Minnesota State Fair’s Moo Booth came up with a similar work around for its hands-on milking event: a fake dairy cow named Olympia.

Normally, we’d have a real cow out there,” said Jill Nathe, the fair’s deputy general manager of agriculture and competition. “We just can’t do that right now.”

Are we really at that point in the bird flu hysteria already?

I did not realize we were this far gone.

State and local officials say they are trying to protect people and animals from the H5N1 virus as some dairy farmers have declined to test their herds. Experts worry that further transmission of the virus could help it adapt to spread between humans.

The risk of viral spread among herds prompted some county fairs in Michigan to cancel dairy shows, while the Iowa State Fair shuttered its milking barn.

In Minnesota, state fair staff procured extra gloves and face shields from COVID-era stockpiles for the livestock crew, and kept pregnant dairy cows out of the fair’s birthing center.

Several farm states, including Wisconsin, required lactating cattle to test negative within seven days of arriving at the fairgrounds.

Michigan banned lactating cows from all public exhibitions until the state goes two months without finding an infected herd. With only one state fair per year, the chance has passed for 2024. Michigan last reported a case on Monday.

Do people not remember the coronavirus? That the whole thing was a gigantic hoax?

How are we going back to this type of mania so soon?

How is this even happening?