“ By Max Watman April 17, 2015 4:37 p.m. ET 4 COMMENTS I’ve often imagined the domestication of animals as a kind of contract between us and them. It seems as if it’s a pact set up to proliferate or protect both species. Dogs promised to make us better hunters, or wake up faster than we do when we’re threatened. We bequeathed them our scraps. Horses asked for a safe place to live and health benefits in return for carrying us on their backs. It’s a backroom covenant, and it seems to have gone down pretty well. Cows, though, perhaps should have driven a harder bargain. Wait, run that last bit by me again—what’s going to happen? For the individual steer about to be stunned, it doesn’t seem like a good deal. For the herd, however—for the continuation of cowdom—our arrangement is aces. There are 93 million cows living in America. Protected by humans from predators (and now infectious diseases), cattle are our partners in world domination. They outweigh us, and if you start tallying the acreage and resources dedicated to them, it certainly seems they occupy a position of privilege. ”
