the udder ring

The Cow Parade is in Porto Alegre. Whenever I walk past a cow I stop to take a gander. Apparently a significant number of the cows has been vandalized. One was even stolen and returned the next day. It’s a sad reality in Brazil that there is no pride of ownership of public property: “If it’s public, it belongs to no one and I’m entitled to deface it.” Or perhaps there is too much pride of ownership of public property: “if it’s public, it is also mine and I’m entitled to deface it.” It depends on your point of view. But the result is always the same.

Walking by praça Julio de Castilho this weekend I stopped to look at the cow displayed there (pictured). It was a hip, modern sort of cow, it wore glasses, leg warmers and a nipple ring. - well, for the sake of accuracy, let’s call it an udder ring - The cow was intact except for the udder ring, which had been pried off and tossed on the pavement. I replaced the ring because first, it seemed like the proper thing to do and second, because how often do you get to say you replaced an udder ring?

But I walked away with two questions: what sort of person puts an udder ring on a cow? And the infinitely more disturbing question, what sort of person pulls it off?



The work is called: A Vaca Foi pro Beco by: Andrey Damo, sponsored by: Mumu, on display at Praça Julio de Caslilho in Porto Alegre. Here is a link to all the cows http://www.cowparade.com.br/poa/galeria.php