In the bodily concept of life, they have been described in the sastra: go-kharah, “cow and asses.”

…Bhagavad-gita is the only book in the world which teaches to educate these cows and asses to human life. This mass of cows and asses are to be trained with these teachings of Bhagavad-gita… These rascals, they are under the full control of this material nature, and they are thinking, “We are independent.” This is foolishness.

So if you want to stop this foolish kind of civilization, animal civilization of cows and asses, you have to teach Bhagavad-gita as it is.

From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.22 — Hyderabad, November 26, 1972