Cows Hate Cowbells?

I am so confused by this. Cows hate cowbells? Why are we forcing them to wear them? Rude.

Via QZ.com:

A new study from researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich found that cows wearing the five-and-a-half pound bells ate and chewed less than cows without the bells. Researchers noted that it was unclear if it was the noise or the weight of the bells that bothered the animals.

Cows are known to have more sensitive hearing than humans. And the bells can generate sounds louder than 100 decibels.

“This is as loud as a jackhammer,” Edna Hillmann, director of the technology institute’s animal behavior, health and welfare section, told the Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag. She’s right.