> my impression is that cows as a species will go extinct if not domesticated. Is that bad? Cows aren't necessary for the food chain and them not existing won'

> my impression is that cows as a species will go extinct if not domesticated. Is that bad? Cows aren't necessary for the food chain and them not existing won't do anything to harm the environment, it will do the exact opposite. The "cow species" isn't a sentient being who cares whether or not it exists, so if we can reduce the suffering of individual cows who are already here and the outcome is that domesticated cows go extinct, I don't see that as being bad. It is bad for the dairy farmer, but it's worse for the individual cows and the environment if we keep things the way they are. Even free-range cows are sent to get fattened up on corn that they can't properly digest before they're slaughtered. Despite what Temple Grandin tried to do, cows are still very stressed and scared before they're slaughtered, and the slaughter process is optimized for speed, so the bolt gun doesn't always stun the cow before they're bled out. I think it would be hard to look at what we do to end a cow's life at just a fraction of it's natural length and think that it's better than allowing domestic cows to go extinct.