Farmer opens sanctuary for Nazi super-cows

A Scottish farmer has decided to open an animal sanctuary and Nazi ‘supercows’ are the star attraction.

Derek Gow, 54, has imported a herd of Heck cattle to the UK.

The unusual breed has an association with Nazi Germany, with German zoologists creating the Heck cattle in an attempt to bring back the Aurochs, a wild cow which became extinct in the 15th Century and was depicted in neolithic cave paintings.

There are only 2,000 Heck cows left in Europe.

They are characterised by their long horns and can weigh nearly a tonne.

Brothers Lutz and Heinz Heck were determined to reintroduce the ‘pure’ breed of cattle in a bid to return a mythical Aryan past promoted by the Nazi regime.

The Heck brothers spent years creating the breed by identifying desirable characteristics they wanted to see in their idealised version of cattle.

With no understanding of modern genetics, they started to ‘breed backwards’, selecting traits such as hardiness, horn length, size and temperament to bring back their idealised version of the ‘pure’ cow.

Lutz Heck was promoted within the Nazi regime and went on to oversee the development of Berlin Zoo, while his brother Heinz was put in a concentration camp for marrying a Jewish woman.

After the end of the Second World War, many Heck cows were slaughtered.

But Derek, an ecologist and expert on reintroducing beavers to Britain, had 13 Heck cattle imported to his farm in Lifton, Devon, in 2009.

In 2015, seven of them had to be slaughtered as they were too difficult to handle.

Since then, the herd has expanded to 17, but visitors will not be allowed in the same field.

Derek has spent the past year creating an attraction which will include wild boar and English wild cats – and insisted there was ‘no reason’ for visitors to be scared of the cattle.

He said: ‘The cows are very large, they resemble cave paintings.

‘The Nazis wanted to go out and hunt them, that’s why they were made.

‘They can be nervous but they’re not too aggressive.

‘They look like the extinct animals that used to roam the British countryside, that’s why we wanted them.’

The last Auroch is believed to have been killed in a forest in Poland in the 15th Century, as they were hunted extensively.

Derek added: ‘The project is developing rapidly and we hope that people will be able to come to the farm and see the animals and hear talks about what the countryside was once like.

‘We are re-wilding parts of the farm and also on the site there will be wild boar, Mouslom sheep, European wildcats and wild beavers.

‘It’s nice to see everything start to thrive, we’re not hard at work farming anymore.’

Derek hopes to open to the public in May, and visitors can stay in huts on the farm, which cost £120 per night and sleep two people.