Body-Builder Bulls Spark Online Outrage

Giant bulls have been in the news lately, with towering specimens like “Knickers” and “Dozer” making headlines.

From tall, the discussion has turned to massive, as people come across images of “double-muscled” bulls, or bulls that look like bodybuilders on steroids.

Some cattle breeds, specifically the Belgian Blue and British Blue varieties, lack a naturally occurring chemical called myostatin that regulates the size and number of muscle fibers. These breeds have dramatically more meat than a standard cow.

Some people, seeing pictures of these muscle-bound bovines, assumed they must have been injected with steroids.

Comments on a YouTube video featuring these giants said, “It should be illegal to inject steroids into any animal. It takes it out of its natural healthy looking character.”

Another viewer posted, “Insane … pathetic what they did to these poor creatures,” Fox News reported.

After the first video went viral, many more appeared, attracting comments like: “I love meat as much as anyone, but I wouldn’t want to eat one of the cyber cows. Something is just wrong about these animals. They can barely walk!”

Another viewer posted, “Nothing natural about this. These animals are being exploited by science and greed. What you do to the animal kingdom will have horrible consequences to us all.”

Not Medical Monsters—Just Big Bulls

Despite their unusual appearance, these creatures are the product of selective breeding, and not steroids or gene editing.

Myostatin-deficient cattle were first documented in 1808 by livestock scientist George Culley, WizScience.com reported.  Cross-breeding between several English shorthorn breeds and possibly French Charolais cattle produced the hyper-muscled behemoths.

The modern breed was more or less created by Professor Roger Hanset of the University of Liege who used artificial insemination to closely control the breeding of the species until the myostatin deficiency bred true and became a permanent characteristic of the breed.

Professor Hanset’s goal was to create a breed of cattle with the maximum amount of lean meat, increasing the economic value of each cow.

While the cows are indeed packed with meat, they are not what the farmer’s dream once imagined.

Because of the extreme muscularity of the cows and the calves, almost every calf has to be delivered by caesarian section.

Also, the calves can also have hard time nursing as their tongues can also grow to be double-sized.

Other Hyper-Muscled Creatures

The myostatin deficiency mutation can occur in other animals, as well as humans.

Whippet dogs are subject to the myostatin mutation. The condition causes these dogs, normally lean like miniature greyhounds, to swell up like Rottweilers.

The most famous of the bully whippets is unquestionably Wendy the Whippet, who has two copies of the myostatin mutation which increased her musculature even more.

Wendy has been featured in the New York Times and the Daily Mail. She weighs in at a whopping 60 pounds—twice what would be considered exceedingly large for this lean, speedy breed.

There is even a breed of sheep, the Beltex sheep, bred to-be double-muscled. Lamb chops the size of footballs, anyone?

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