The tales of Kobe beef cattle being raised in comfort with massages and the occasional beer might be a stretch of the truth: Kobe is expensive, delicious, but inhumanely raised beef.
From the time they are a week old until they are three and a half years old, these steers are commonly kept in a lean-to behind someone's house where they get bored and go off their feed. Their gut stops working. The best way to start their gut working again is to give them a bottle of beer.