The quiet Swiss canton of Valais became shrouded in mystery as a herd of cows inexplicably jumped off a cliff which left farming experts baffled. The 50-meter jump killed 12 of the 13 cows. The sole survivor was believed to have landed on top of the others and only suffered a broken jaw.

The mysterious suicide left land owners to think that a predator must have caused the unusual behavior from the cows. The Heren cows were owned by different people and were only grazing together at the pasture owned by a local couple. They were valued at around 20,000 Swiss Francs or an approximately 15,000 British Pounds.

The cows broke through several lines around the pasture before finding themselves on the ridge. “They fell into the void, as though they were forced into it,” said Norbert Terrettaz, president of a farming insurance company.

What makes the local couple’s theory confusing is the fact that cows tend to disperse when faced with a threatening situation. So why they followed each other like sheep and acted like cows pumped with drugs remains to be known.

Are we any different?

If the behavior of these cows are baffling, imagine how perplexing humans are. These cows basically committed suicide maybe as a result of the fight or flight response but mankind is another story.

Take pesticides as an example. Virtually every household uses pyrethroid pesticide, which is a less toxic alternative to older pesticides that have been proven to have detrimental effects to humans. One study found that 70 percent of people in the United States have been exposed, with kids having the most exposure. While specific effects on humans are still unknown, animal studies showed that pyrethroids caused damage to the immune, reproductive, and neurological systems.

If you think that’s scary, imagine actually ingesting poison. A report by the Alliance for Natural Health USA made a shocking discovery that 10 out of 24 breakfast foods, like whole wheat and organic bagels contain detectable traces of glyphosate. Glyphosate is an active ingredient in a very popular herbicide called Roundup. The tests also found alarming levels of glyphosate in breakfast staples like eggs and coffee creamers.

Additional scientific studies show that glyphosate residues are very common in the environment, which further raised concerns that they may be present in food. Glyphosate is no laughing matter because the World Health Organization (WHO) classified it as a possible human carcinogen. In fact, it has been linked to several types of cancers, like thyroid, kidney, breast, liver, pancreas, bladder, and myeloid leukemia.

The fact that this is showing up in foods like eggs and coffee creamer, which don’t directly contact the herbicide, shows that it’s being passed on by animals who ingest it in their feed,” said Gretchen DuBeau, Executive and Legal Director of Alliance for Natural Health-USA. Among those they tested were corn flakes, flour, non-dairy creamers, cream of wheat, eggs, dairy based creamers, frozen hash browns, potatoes, yogurt, bread, bagels, and instant oatmeal. She also added that these findings contradicted all the things industry scientists and regulators have been telling the public.

Then there’s heavy metal poisoning. Surprisingly, metal toxicity is common as these toxic metals are present in the environment — and are very hard to avoid. Heavy metals like copper, iron, cobalt, molybdenum, vanadium, manganese, strontium, and zinc are essential to one’s health but only in trace amounts. However, non-essential metals that can be harmful in excessive amounts include cadmium, chromium, lead, arsenic, mercury, and antimony.

Sources of toxicity include water supply, environmental, industrial, and even your hobbies. You can also ingest it, get in contact with the skin, or by simply drinking water. Metal toxicity is dangerous because they can damage the nervous, gastrointestinal, reproductive and cardiovascular systems. They can also have a negative effect in blood production and cause kidney disorders.

Just like the cows who mysteriously jumped to their deaths for no compelling reason, it’s also baffling that humans continue to practice habits that constantly expose us to such health hazards.

Sources include:

Dailymail.co.uk

ScientificAmerican.com

DailyMail.co.uk

Diagnose-Me.com