diff --git a/examples/ansible.cfg b/examples/ansible.cfg
index 49da6f098db..bf65706775c 100644
--- a/examples/ansible.cfg
+++ b/examples/ansible.cfg
@@ -143,6 +143,20 @@ ansible_managed = Ansible managed: {file} on {host}
 # set to 1 if you don't want cowsay support or export ANSIBLE_NOCOWS=1 
 #nocows = 1
 
+# set which cowsay stencil you'd like to use by default. When set to 'random',
+# a random stencil will be selected for each task. The selection will be filtered
+# against the `cow_whitelist` option below.
+#cow_selection = default
+#cow_selection = random
+
+# when using the 'random' option for cowsay, stencils will be restricted to this list.
+# it should be formatted as a comma-separated list with no spaces between names.
+# NOTE: line continuations here are for formatting purposes only, as the INI parser
+#       in python does not support them.
+#cow_whitelist=bud-frogs,bunny,cheese,daemon,default,dragon,elephant-in-snake,elephant,eyes,\
+#              hellokitty,kitty,luke-koala,meow,milk,moofasa,moose,ren,sheep,small,stegosaurus,\
+#              stimpy,supermilker,three-eyes,turkey,turtle,tux,udder,vader-koala,vader,www
+
 # don't like colors either?
 # set to 1 if you don't want colors, or export ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR=1
 #nocolor = 1
diff --git a/lib/ansible/constants.py b/lib/ansible/constants.py
index 3d985d0f3dc..642f8343d27 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/constants.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/constants.py
@@ -115,6 +115,12 @@ active_user   = pwd.getpwuid(os.geteuid())[0]
 # group variables -- really anything we can load
 YAML_FILENAME_EXTENSIONS = [ "", ".yml", ".yaml", ".json" ]
 
+# the default whitelist for cow stencils
+DEFAULT_COW_WHITELIST = ['bud-frogs', 'bunny', 'cheese', 'daemon', 'default', 'dragon', 'elephant-in-snake', 'elephant',
+                         'eyes', 'hellokitty', 'kitty', 'luke-koala', 'meow', 'milk', 'moofasa', 'moose', 'ren', 'sheep',
+                         'small', 'stegosaurus', 'stimpy', 'supermilker', 'three-eyes', 'turkey', 'turtle', 'tux', 'udder',
+                         'vader-koala', 'vader', 'www',]
+
 # sections in config file
 DEFAULTS='defaults'
 
@@ -210,6 +216,8 @@ CACHE_PLUGIN_TIMEOUT           = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'fact_caching_timeout',
 ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR            = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'force_color', 'ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR', None, boolean=True)
 ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR                = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'nocolor', 'ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR', None, boolean=True)
 ANSIBLE_NOCOWS                 = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'nocows', 'ANSIBLE_NOCOWS', None, boolean=True)
+ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION          = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'cow_selection', 'ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION', 'default')
+ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST          = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'cow_whitelist', 'ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST', DEFAULT_COW_WHITELIST, islist=True)
 DISPLAY_SKIPPED_HOSTS          = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'display_skipped_hosts', 'DISPLAY_SKIPPED_HOSTS', True, boolean=True)
 DEFAULT_UNDEFINED_VAR_BEHAVIOR = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'error_on_undefined_vars', 'ANSIBLE_ERROR_ON_UNDEFINED_VARS', True, boolean=True)
 HOST_KEY_CHECKING              = get_config(p, DEFAULTS, 'host_key_checking',  'ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING',    True, boolean=True)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/utils/display.py b/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
index 88e1a568047..c91f4f83db0 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/utils/display.py
@@ -76,9 +76,15 @@ class Display:
         self._errors       = {}
 
         self.cowsay = None
-        self.noncow = os.getenv("ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION",None)
+        self.noncow = C.ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION
+
         self.set_cowsay_info()
 
+        if self.cowsay:
+            cmd = subprocess.Popen([self.cowsay, "-l"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+            (out, err) = cmd.communicate()
+            self.cows_available = list(set(C.ANSIBLE_COW_WHITELIST).intersection(out.split()))
+
         self._set_column_width()
 
     def set_cowsay_info(self):
@@ -95,13 +101,6 @@ class Display:
                 # MacPorts path for cowsay
                 self.cowsay = "/opt/local/bin/cowsay"
 
-            if self.cowsay and self.noncow == 'random':
-                cmd = subprocess.Popen([self.cowsay, "-l"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
-                (out, err) = cmd.communicate()
-                cows = out.split()
-                cows.append(False)
-                self.noncow = random.choice(cows)
-
     def display(self, msg, color=None, stderr=False, screen_only=False, log_only=False):
         """ Display a message to the user
 
@@ -239,8 +238,11 @@ class Display:
                 msg = msg[:-1]
         runcmd = [self.cowsay,"-W", "60"]
         if self.noncow:
+            thecow = self.noncow
+            if thecow == 'random':
+                thecow = random.choice(self.cows_available)
             runcmd.append('-f')
-            runcmd.append(self.noncow)
+            runcmd.append(thecow)
         runcmd.append(msg)
         cmd = subprocess.Popen(runcmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
         (out, err) = cmd.communicate()