How many cows, chickens etc do you think would survive if humans all of a sudden decided to stop breeding and exploiting them? It's not like those animals can survive in the wild (unless, of course, humans continue protecting them and killing their predators).
It's unlikely the world would decide all at once to not need farm animals anymore so I think it would be a case of the population falling over years as less were bred.
Also, some species have been altered through selective breeding so much they would have trouble survinging normally e.g. rapidly growing animals that would have difficulty supporting their own weight after the age they would normally be slaughtered.
There would hopefully be more land for wild cows, chickens, pigs etc. to thrive after too.
Basically every animal domesticated for food is a separate species from it's wild counterpart. In some cases (aurochs) the wild predecessor is deceased. These species survival 'strategy' is to be useful to humans as food, as much as it is a lions to hunt things. If we suddenly stopped breeding these animals then they would probably die out.
Hypothetical question. Let's say this fruitions and is widely popular. Wouldn't that mean we would simply stop rearing cattle and poultry? Would that mean the species will go extinct? Now isn't that cruelty.
Cows as a species are probably as safe as humans. Plenty other cases to worry about, assuming it’s feasible to fight extinction on a per-species basis.
Domestic animals are already going extinct[1] as agriculture standardizes on the most profitable, most stable, or lowest maintenance breeds. Most domestic breeds wouldn't survive transition to wild living, survive by outcompeting native wildlife. That's why we don't have flocks of wild chickens roaming North America but there feral pigs are a menace.
Based on this, I would bet that our current domestic meat animals would go extinct relatively quickly. There are some people who try to preserve various breeds in what are essentially zoos, but I can't imagine them operating in perpetuity.
I've read, but not verified, claims that many farm animals would be extinct or close to extinction if we didn't actively maintain their population (for purpose of slaughter), as we've taken over their natural habitats.
What is your idealistic outcome? All of these cows are released into the wild and are killed within one to two generations by wolves or mountain lions?
The cows that exist now are essentially useless without farmers. If you are ethically bound with them, how do you come to terms with the terror they will live through until they die?
Not that we we will be able to test it, but I would bet against your promise. I don’t see a reason why cows or chickens couldn’t survive in the wild. Not in all areas obviously but I am sure there are areas where climate, vegetation and predators allow them to thrive. We have wild turkeys, we have quail, so why not chickens? And if horses can survive, then cows can too. Horses are way more fragile than cows.
Just pointing out an unintended consequence I saw in a cartoon:
As soon as nobody farms cows for meat, milk, and leather, cows will become an endangered species/extinct because nobody will pay to keep them alive. And there's not much space where they could survive on their own in the wild.
The vast majority of farmed animals are only alive at all because they are farmed. Wild animals would not fare well - what is now farmland would be put to different use.
(I don't live in the US, and I grew up in the Irish countryside amongst the many cows in the fields.)
Continue eating them as usual but stop breeding new ones. Most of them only live a few months, they'll all be gone within two years.
The species won't go extinct either, we can still keep some around in their natural habitats and zoos, which are both much nicer conditions than most farms. Preferably we won't keep around the breeds that were created for farming, they just aren't healthy animals.
Cow breeding is an almost entirely human-controlled process, we could phase them out in a few years while eating them unwastefully. But the problem is not the cows, it's the owners whose livelihoods you've stolen.
Also, destroying calorie production at gunpoint is historically a great way to start mass death human famines.
I'm looking forward to the cow/pig/sheep/chicken extinction event - no one will keep them around, except maybe in zoos, if the whole world is vegan.
Edit: a downvote? this is totally serious - what are they going to be - released back into the wild where they roam free? There won't be any more, except as I said in zoos, if the whole world goes vegan
Cows and other animals involving factory farming are the least endangered species on the planet. There is literally zero effort to eliminate cows from the gene pool, except by activists who want to see these animals fend hilariously ineffectively for themselves in the wild. Their predators and their reliance on humans would ensure the genocide you speak of would actually happen.
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