And they say autistic people don't have a sense of humor!
Ironically, Cows blood and brain protiens ARE supposed to be VERY close to humans. Of course, COWS can catch scrapie, and humans CAN'T, so their protiens are NOT identical. And chimps, though closer to humans than cows, supposedly closer genetically, and in the same family, supposedly AREN'T so close in some ways, though I guess their protiens must be similar as well.
Anyway, cows have 60 chromosomes as opposed to our 46. ALSO, who is to say that the DNA is REALLY that reliable across families?
And if they are going to say "ret*d" as in deficient, then they are working on a false premise.
As for the intelligence of cows, relatively few species have shown the basic abilities that humans have that lead one to assume any kind of intelligence. Ironically, some BIRDS show more initiative than cows do. Ducks, for example, will pretend to be injured to lead a predator away. Seagulls will drop shell fish to crack the shells so they can eat the muscle. Otters will go one better and use a rock against a shell fish. A chimp may even condition a rock to use as an anvil to do the same thing. Chimps ALSO, obviously, have a basic language. They can warn of danger, describe the danger to a degree, attack, and hide. Interestingly, even though they have caught these animals TEACHING their young, who obviously learn it, they STILL discount it and say it is instinct.
But what do COWS do? What do they even really have the physical ability to do?