‘World’s smallest cow’ attracts thousands of visitors despite lockdown
The ‘world’s smallest cow’ has become an unlikely lockdown celebrity after being discovered on a Bangladeshi farm.
Rani is just 20 inches tall, 26 inches long and weighs only 57 pounds.
Thousands of people have broken the country’s nationwide Covid restrictions to travel to the farm to see the 23-month-old cow, with television crews and newspaper reporters making the tiny animal into a worldwide star.
People in Bangladesh aren’t meant to be travelling at all at the moment due to record coronavirus infections and deaths.
But rickshaw operators are constantly ferrying people the 19 miles to the farm in Charigram, from the capital Dhaka.
‘I have never seen anything like this in my life. Never,’ said Rina Begum, 30, who came from a neighbouring town.
Rani’s owners claim she is 10 centimetres shorter than the smallest cow currently recognised by the Guinness World Records, Manikyam, from the Vechur breed, who was 61 centimetres high in June 2014.
M.A. Hasan Howlader, manager of Shikor Agro farm, uses a tape measure to show dozens of onlookers how Rani dwarfs her closest rival.
He’s applied to get her stature officially recognised and has been promised a decision in three months.
‘People come long distances despite the coronavirus lockdown. Most want to take selfies with Rani,’ Howlader said.
‘More than 15,000 people have come to see Rani in the past three days alone. Honestly speaking, we are tired.’
Rani is a Bhutti, or Bhutanese, cow which is prized for its meat in Bangladesh. The other Bhuttis on the farm are twice Rani’s size.
‘We did not expect such huge interest. We did not think people would leave their homes because of the worsening virus situation. But they have come here in droves,’ the manager said.
Sajedul Islam, the government’s chief vet for the region, said Rani is a product of ‘genetic inbreeding’ and was unlikely to become any bigger.
Islam said he had told the farm to try to restrict the number of people travelling to see the cow.
‘I told them they should not allow so many people to crowd the farm. They may carry diseases here that threaten Rani’s health,’ he said.
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