The teats are paved with gold? Politician claims Indian cow milk contains precious metal

An Indian politician has drawn disdain and mockery online after claiming that Indian cows produce gold in their milk thanks to a peculiar gland that makes the element when sunlight falls upon it.

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh is no stranger to controversy, recently telling beef eaters, whom he dubbed as “anti-socials,” to go home and eat dog meat, but his latest bovine biology barrage was truly breathtaking.

“A feature of the Indian cow is that its milk contains gold. That’s the reason the color of the milk is yellowish,” Ghosh said during a speech in the Burdwan district in eastern India, insisting that when sunlight falls on Indian cows, gold is produced.

“The Indian cows have humps, which foreign cows don’t have. The foreign cow has a straight back, like a buffalo. The [Indian cow] hump has an artery, called ‘swarnanari’ (gold artery). When sunlight falls on it, gold is made,” he added, before reaffirming that it is a “heinous crime” to kill cows and consume their meat in India. 

Needless to say, his rather outlandish claims were ruthlessly mocked online.

Ghosh’s supporters were few and far between but still made their voices heard above the din of derision, though many confused previous scientific studies which found trace amounts of gold in cow milk and urine with Ghosh’s claims that the cows actually produce gold in their milk.

Inevitably, some party poopers decided to ruin the fun with the actual science, explaining that fat globules are the real reason why cows’ milk has a slightly yellow-ish tinge and traces of gold in fluids produced by the body is nothing special.

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