@tom_g I should have been more specific. I meant to look at the entire food chain attached to cattle, not just dairy cows, which only end up getting butchered after their milk runs dry, if they live that long. Downers (diseased animals that fall ill before their reproductive stage passes and their milk runs dry) are not supposed to be butchered and eaten by humans, although there is plenty of video evidence that is a nice fantasy and not the actual practice at meat packing companies.
@tranquilsea Excellent choice. Our local farmers need the support, and I am sure their produce is a more healthy choice than that from factory farms.
@sinscriven Exactly. And the bison is far more naturally adapted to their environment than modern cattle. Our farm cattle are the product of centuries of selective breeding for muman nurture and consumption, not of natural selection and survival in the wild.
@thorninmud That’s an interesting question in itself. All life is suffering. So are we actually doing a living thing a favor when we kill it prematurely? Apparently, at least among humans, we think not.
@WestRiverrat If that’s true, it certainly introduces an interesting dillema. Can you cite a source?
@Keep_on_running No predators? There are wolves, cougars, cyotes (taking calves), mountain lions, bears—and of course humans hunting. Beyond predation, there are the elements. Winter cold and summer heat. Droughts. Starvation. Human farmers protect their herds from all these. But the current cattle have been bred to survive in this sheltered environment and be as productive as possible, not to exist in the wild.