View Single Post
Old 02-08-2012, 11:07 AM   #21
Haejin
 
Haejin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Texas
Posts: 220
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renatus View Post
One of the factors I'm considering is the fact that all these cattle, are bred for eating, we have over thousands of years been weeding out the genes that allow them to survive in the wild so we'll have cattle that are easier to handle. We've also been focusing on the genes that make them meatier, which would slow them down significantly. Those very genes would serve to make them more prone to staying in one place and focus on eating everything in that one area, which would be well and fine if we were still around to provide them food(which we wouldn't be in all likelihood). They would eat up their food supply quickly and be unable to find more. Look at the natural species of bovines, they have to go huge distances to survive. Then we have the predators.. suddenly you have these slow fat cows out in the wild.

The sudden shock of lack of food/survival instincts would be devastating I think. We have thousands of years of genetic engineering to the domesticated species, and they lack the sentience to overcome their disadvantages. Not to mention I don't even think their old original natural habitats have space for them anymore. Thinned or not I just don't think they're capable of going back.
So what you're telling me is, we have to eat something, in order for it to survive and not go extinct?

The only thing I can think of working is that we wouldn't allow current cattle to reproduce...in whatever means possible. And they wouldn't be allowed to roam in the wild, but would need human protection.

As I read on one website

"would it be such a terrible thing if cattle did become extinct? If they have no natural habitat and are not currently serving the ecosystem in anyway, what’s the problem? The ethical response is that we just make sure the ones alive now live happy, healthy lives and when they die of natural causes, then they’re gone. It’s really not a huge, horrific loss if a genetically modified species** created by and for humans goes extinct. Really, it’s not."

As much as it saddens me to think of them going extinct.... you're right. They were genetically modified by us...

Think about it...
Haejin is offline   Reply With Quote