Wait, what type of cow we talking here? Jersey, Guernsey, Holstein, Angus? Male or Female? How old?
Sorry, former dairy kid OCD kicking in from a state that has more cows than there are Iowans.
And a rooster? Can I get it processed (plucked, gutted, and in a bag ready for a pot)
A rooster is an interesting choice of a prize. Few farmers, even the locavore/small kind, breed their own chickens anymore. And they tend to be banned in a lot of areas. The type of cooking they are perfect for (chicken soup from scratch)is not something the average person tends to do anymore. So not many people want roosters.
There has been a lot of commotion around the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area for the past few years, with a legal motion to allow a modest number of suburban chickens on residential personal property being repeatedly brought up for discussion.
Thankfully, the motion has thus far been shot down in my immediate area, but I think it has passed somewhere.
And there are still a few properties that have been owned by the same family for longer than the modern livestock laws have been on the books, and thus they are permitted to keep sundry animals. I rather enjoy the llamas. :-)
I have known people in NYC who kept chickens. It didn't seem like it caused a problem for anyone. But if they ended up with a rooster, that was a big issue because they are banned.
As someone born & raised in Iowa, I'm glad to see them embrace the startup culture. Iowa is a great place to live, and it could use some new sharp minds to help it grow.
As for the people complaining about prizes --- why don't you donate something more enticing than cow, chicken, and rooster?
Who's up for a road trip from the Bay Area? Bonus points if you have a livestock trailer or something to tow it with. Somehow I don't think my Prius will cut it...
Have you thought about the average factory-farmed animal gracing the average piece of pepperoni or sausage pizza at most hackathons? I don't see how this is worse. If anything, it forces people to think about how meat comes from animals far more than the kind of meat usually served at hackathons, which really doesn't even resemble an animal.
zevyoura, you actually did a great job of summarizing my positions (especially for someone I assume does not fully share them).
This is just such an unnecessary combination of something I happen to love and something I happen to hate.
You do realize that nobody's going to be keeping a live cow or pig in their apartment, right? It's most likely that they're going to give away a butchered cow.
Not that it makes it better if you don't support raising animals for slaughter at all, but you shouldn't worry that it's going to be more cruel to the animal.
> (but then again this is Iowa and these are farmers).
It might be surprising to learn but Des Moines is actually a fairly populous city with office buildings and fast food restaurants and everything! Few of its citizens are farmers.
