Six-legged Swiss calf uncowed by disability
Six-legged calf “Lilli” stands on the pasture of its owner Andreas Knutti, in Weissenburg, Switzerland, Thursday, March 29, 2012. The calf was born seven weeks ago with two additional legs on its back. – AP
GENEVA: A six-legged calf has defied the odds by thriving despite a vet’s prediction at birth that it wouldn’t survive.
Seven-week-old Lilli is now a minor celebrity in her native Switzerland after local media were splashed with images of the calf frolicking across a sunny field.
Farmer Andreas Knutti from Weissenburg, which is 19 miles (30 kilometers) south of the capital Bern, says he couldn’t bring himself to euthanize the animal because she was “so full of life.”
He told Swiss daily Blick Thursday that a curve in her spine means Lilli may never become a normal milk cow.
But Knutti says if the calf stays healthy she’ll still be allowed to join the others when they head for their Alpine pastures this summer.
That is an odd place to have legs. It appears as if Nature said, "Hey, you cow, take these two legs, too." and threw them at her, and they got stuck where they landed.
Most likely a result of fetal resorption, also known as the vanishing twin syndrome. In which one fetus in a multiple gestation pregnancy dies in utero at an early stage and is partially or completely reabsorbed by the viable twin.
Just visit Pushkar, in India. You will find several cows like this with deformities.