Where's PETA When You Really Need Them?

I would imagine that being a cow is a pretty dead-end proposition to begin with. But now scientists in Argentina are heaping insult upon injury by collecting Bossie's farts:

Experts said the slow digestive system of cows makes them a key producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets far less public attention than carbon dioxide.

In a bid to understand the impact of the wind produced by cows on global warming, scientists collected gas from their stomachs in plastic tanks attached to their backs.

The Argentine researchers discovered methane from cows accounts for more than 30 per cent of the country's total greenhouse emissions.

How the, ah, collection tube is connected to the, ah, source, I really don't want to know. By the look on the poor girl's face, I should say it isn't terribly comfortable.

BTW, shouldn't that tank have large No Smoking! signs plastered all over it? I should think that a single spark near a giant tank of cow toots and we're talking a hamburger blast perimeter of a couple hundred yards anyway.