DH lived in what I guess would be called the "inner city" of Chicago, although it wasn't really as bad as that back in the 70's, but regardless, his single mother was busy trying to raise and feed 5 boys on her own. Thry didn't travel, they didn't drive down interstates in the midwest, and they didn't have money for the zoo. His school field trips happened to be to the planetarium, or the Field Museum, or the MSI instead of out into the suburban Brookfield Zoo (not positive about the Lincoln Park Zoo, or if they happened to have had a cow there back then). So, DH didn't see a live cow growing up. How is that so hard to believe?
Ironically, when his step (now adopted) dad got into the picture and worked hard to get his family out of the city, he moved them to a small town in MI right down the road from a horse farm where there were all kinds of animals. DH was 13.
I met him when I was 14, he was 16, and guess what was behind my house? A cow farm. The cows used to come right up to our fence. However, before moving to that house, I grew up in Detroit, although more in the suburb-type area of it, but the first time I saw a live cow was my 1st grade field trip to the Detroit Zoo.
Many years later, DD drew a picture for her kindergarten teacher with the title "What I Am Thankful For". Her answer was "the bulls in my grandma's backyard" lol, and she drew a great little picture of the cows. So cute. But it totally shows how different the experiences of kids are, depending on where they live and what they are exposed to on a daily basis.