# Cow blowing

Cow blowing, Kuhblasen, phooka, or doom dev is a process in which a farmer forcefully blows air into a cow's vulva or anus to supposedly induce her to produce more milk. A tube may be used to provide some sanitary separation between the blower and the cow, although not every culture that practices cow blowing does so.
Information on the origin, spread and efficacy of this practice appears to be quite scarce.
Cow blowing was the reason why Gandhi disliked dairy products, stating that "since I had come to know that the cow and the buffalo were subjected to the process of phooka, I had conceived a strong disgust for milk."
The practice has been illegal in New Zealand since 2018. In 2020 the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards revoked their 'Share Farmer of the Year' award over a dairy farmer's tweets about the practice.

## Distribution according to Plischke (1954)

| People | Area | Author | Year | See (also) | Other |
| Kalmyk | southern Russian steppe | Peter Simon Pallas | 1776 | | |
| Scythians | | Herodotus | 5th century BC | | (to horses) |
| Yakuts | Lena River (Siberia) | Gerhard Friedrich Müller | 1736 | | |
| Ethiopians | Ethiopia | I. M. Hildebrandt | 1874 | | |
| Kaffa | | Friedrich J. Bieber | 1920 | | |
| Nuer | | H. A. Bernatzik | 1929 | E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1951); Luz H, Herz W (1976) | |
| Dinka | | H. A. Bernatzik | 1930 | | |
| Baggara Arabs | Kordofan | McMichael | 1924 | | |
| Somali | | C. Keller | 1894 | | |
| Oromo | | Ph. Paulischke | 1893 | | |
| Wasiba (part of Haya people) | Kagera Region | H. Rehse | 1910 | | Per Rehse, Wasiba insert their arm into the cow anus up the elbow for the same purpose |
| Turu people | | E. Sick | 1915 | | |
| Wagogo | | H. Clauss | 1911 | | |
| Khoikhoi | South Africa | Peter Kolb | 1719 | | |
| Masa people | Logone area south of Chad | A. Rühe | 1938 | | |
| Chinese | Tung River (China) | I. H. Edgar | 1924 | | Dadu River (Sichuan province) |
| | India | T. Murari | 1937 | Mahatma Gandhi (1927/1929) | known locally as phooka |
| Alps (Untergurgl, upper Ötztal), Pfitscher Joch | | | 1939 | |
| Pyrenees | | | 1939 | |

## Literature

* Hans Plischke: "Das Kuhblasen. Eine völkerkundliche Miszelle zu Herodot,' Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin: Reimer, Bd. 79, 1954, S. 1-7.
* H. A. Bernatzik: Zwischen Weißem Nil und Belgisch-Kongo. Wien 1929
* Isaac Schapera: The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa. London 1930
* Tadeusz Margul: "Present-Day Worship of the Cow in India." In: Numen, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Feb., 1968), pp. 63–80
* Florence Burgat: "Non-Violence Towards Animals in the Thinking of Gandhi: the Problem of Animal Husbandry." In: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, Volume 17, Number 3 / Mai 2004, Seiten 223-248
* Hubert Kroll: "Das Zurückhalten der Milch bei Rindern und ihre Behandlung bei afrikanischen Hirtenstämmen." In: Milchwirtschaftliches Zentralblatt (1928), Jg. 57, Heft 22, S. 349-350
* Hubert Kroll: "Die Haustiere der Bantu." In: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie Bd. 60, S. 247-248
* Sture Lagercrantz: Contribution of the Ethnography of Africa. Lund: Håkan Ohlssons 1950 (mit Karte zur Verbreitung in Afrika, auch zur Verbreitung des milking with dummy-calves ("Melkens mit Kalbspuppen")