Min ko vill ha roligt facts for kids

Min ko vill ha roligt (which means My Cow Wants to Have Fun) is a special book by Astrid Lindgren and Kristina Forslund. It collects all the articles they wrote about protecting animals and stopping factory farming. These articles appeared in Swedish magazines like Expressen and Dagens Nyheter between 1985 and 1989. Their work was so important that it led to a new animal protection law in Sweden. This law was even called Lex Lindgren after Astrid Lindgren! It was announced on her 80th birthday.

Fighting for Animals

On May 3, 1985, Astrid Lindgren wrote an article for the Dagens Nyheter magazine. She was worried about new devices called "cow trainers." These devices used small electric shocks to make cows put their waste in a specific spot. She also thought it was wrong that many cows were kept inside all the time. They couldn't go outside anymore.

Soon after, Astrid Lindgren received a letter from Kristina Forslund. Kristina was a veterinarian and a teacher at a university for animal medicine. She was about to quit her job because she was tired of giving medicine to animals. She felt their real problem was how they were being kept. Kristina believed the only way to continue her work was to change how animals were treated.

A Powerful Team

Astrid Lindgren asked Kristina to help her start a campaign. They wanted to make people in Sweden more aware of how animals were being treated. This led to a strong partnership between them. Astrid Lindgren used her amazing writing skills. Kristina Forslund shared her deep knowledge about animals.

Together, they started writing and publishing articles in the Swedish magazine Expressen. These articles talked about animal suffering. They also discussed how some farms focused only on making money, not on animal well-being. Lindgren and Forslund mostly criticized the government's farming rules. They also spoke out against the industrial way of farming. They didn't blame the farmers themselves. They believed most farmers also wanted their animals to be healthy and happy.

About the Book

The book Min ko vill ha roligt contains all the articles that Astrid Lindgren and Kristina Forslund wrote for newspapers. It also includes their personal letters. In these letters, they continued to criticize how animals were treated in large-scale farms.

After their articles were published, Lindgren and Forslund put them all together. They arranged them in the order they were first printed. After each article, they added a comment about what happened next. The authors also wrote about how they started working together. They shared their feelings about the changes to the Animal Welfare Act. The book was first published in Sweden in 1990. It has been translated into Dutch, German, and Norwegian. Some parts of it were also translated into English.

A New Law for Animals

The articles written by Lindgren and Forslund had a big impact. They led to a new animal protection law in Sweden. This law was given to Astrid Lindgren on her 80th birthday. It was named Lex Lindgren, which means "Lindgren's Law." At that time, it was the strictest law in the world for protecting farm animals.

What the Law Changed

Here are some of the most important things that were added to the law:

• §2 Animals should be treated well. They must be protected from pain and sickness that isn't needed.
• §4 Animals must be kept and cared for in a good environment. This environment should help them stay healthy. It should also let them act in ways that are natural for their species.
• §13 When animals are taken to be slaughtered, they must be spared from unnecessary discomfort and suffering.

Why They Weren't Happy

Forslund and Lindgren had worked for three years to get this new law. However, they were not completely happy with it. Some things had gotten a little better for certain animals. But it wasn't enough. In most areas, there was no real improvement. For example, only breeding animals were allowed to graze outside. Animals being raised for meat were not given this right. The size of chicken cages was only made larger much later. Also, the rules for slaughter were not clear enough.

English Versions

The book Min ko vill ha roligt has not been released in English as a complete book. However, some parts of it were published in 1989. This was done by the Animal Welfare Institute in a book titled How Astrid Lindgren achieved enactment of the 1988 law protecting farm animals in Sweden - a selection of articles and letters published in Expressen, Stockholm, 1985-1989. This English book has 27 pages. The original Swedish book has 99 pages. Kristina Forslund has also put some of the articles on her website. There, she also explains the changes that came with the new law.

Different Editions

• Astrid Lindgren & Kristina Forslund (1990): How Astrid Lindgren achieved enactment of the 1988 law protecting farm animals in Sweden. USA, Washington, D.C: Animal Welfare Institute (English, parts of the book only)
• Astrid Lindgren & Kristina Forslund (1990): En hij zag dat het niet goed was. Ploegsma, Amsterdam, (Dutch)
• Astrid Lindgren & Kristina Forslund (1990): Min ko vill ha roligt. Rabén & Sjögren, Stockholm, (Swedish)
• Astrid Lindgren & Kristina Forslund (1991): Meine Kuh will auch Spass haben. Oetinger, Hamburg, (German)
• Astrid Lindgren & Kristina Forslund (1991): Kua mi vil ha det gøy. Damm, (Norwegian)