By Eliza Ridgeway

photo courtesy of Santa Clara County sheriff A group of Los Altos Hills citizens has offered a reward for information leading to the return of purloined cows such as the one shown above.

Two thefts of wooden cows from Los Altos Hills last week are only the latest in a years-long saga of cow-poaching and inter-town politics.

Plywood-and-paint Holsteins have been erected and decorated throughout town as a community commentary on education and tax policies. The “Got Milked” slogan originated in 2003 in protest of the Los Altos School District’s closure of Los Altos Hills’ only elementary school, Bullis-Purissima, immediately following a parcel-tax increase. Ever since, the cows have become a barometer of the feelings of Los Altos and the Hills on a number of issues, in particular Bullis Charter School.

“Over the last three years, I’d guesstimate that more than 100 cows, in one form or another, have been vandalized,” said John Swan, one of the originators of the cow project. He said that any press regarding the charter school, be it negative or positive, correlated with a surge in anti-cow activities.

A group of residents initiated a low-tech surveillance project to guard their herd, passing a video camera among their properties, Swan said. The camera captured footage June 26 of three teens loading a purloined cow into a tan Honda minivan. On June 24, another cow disappeared.

“These particular recent incidences may have been totally juvenile pranks,” Swan said. “We’re not going to press

charges.

The cows and culprits are still at large, and the investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, Swan said he hopes to broaden the cows’ messages, making a town-wide statement about educational autonomy and creating a globally competitive school system. For more information about the Los Altos Hills council’s recent school redistricting resolution, see the story on

page 5.