Knickers, the Cow That's Too Fat to Be Killed, Just Raised $14.5k for Mental Health

Hey, remember Knickers? The giant cow that was literally too fat to be killed? The two-metre-tall, 1,400 kilogram steer that made headlines about a year ago after a number of abattoirs refused to slaughter him based on the fact that he was just too immense for their meat processing facilities? Do you remember?

Well he’s back, baby. Knickers is back, and he’s milking his newfound fame to affect some real change in the world. By posing for selfies with more than 8,000 punters at a Western Australian agriculture show over the weekend, the behemoth bovine helped raise $14,500 for the Blue Tree Project mental health awareness program.

Show-goers were invited to pay a gold coin donation in exchange for the singular opportunity to take a snap with Australia’s biggest cow. Some 1,000 people stepped up to the plate within the first hour, the ABC reports, and by the end of the event the tally had risen to a total of 8,001. By the time Knickers’ owner Geoff Pearson auctioned off some of his farm equipment and the show’s organisers chipped in with a donation, the total funds raised amounted to $24,000.

It was Farmer Geoff himself who came up with the fundraising stunt, offering Knickers’ services to his local agricultural show in Brunswick after he realised the extent of the animal’s global appeal and celebrity status. In the weeks and months following Knickers’ breakout moment in November last year, Geoff said he was inundated with such relentless interest from media outlets around the world that he was forced to place an embargo on his steer.

“At the peak of it all, once that first bit of vision of Knickers got out there, I fielded about 115 calls on the first day, and most of those calls were international," he told the ABC. But the embargo hasn’t stopped people from trying to get an eyeful of Knickers. Geoff said he’s “had drones fly over, and cars still pull up on the highway out the front trying to get a look at him."

And with good reason. Taller than Stephen Curry, heavier than a Honda Civic, and with enough meat to make more than 4,000 burgers — Knickers truly is the eighth wonder of the natural world.

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