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Comment by throwaway07Ju19 | Hacker News Reader

As someone who accidentally killed a small bull while working on a free range ranch, I can tell you that cows are surprisingly sentient and sensitive. The dead yearling's mother-cow howl-moo'ed the rest of the day and into the late evening. Her moos of agony still haunt me.

I defy you to find 1 chicken in 1000 that is capable of suffering this at this level.

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If it was chickens they’d be doing the killing instead of you. They don’t call it pecking order for a reason.

If there were one ton chickens running around they’d probably be killing us. They’re not that far removed from their ancestors.

There were half-ton "chickens" in Australia 5 million years ago. 10 feet tall!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromornis_stirtoni

Or the even heavier Elephant birds in Madagascar until 800 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_bird

There was an article I read a while back about a guy in Europe who raises cows until they are like 20-years of age (the end of their life). When they are getting near the end of their natural lifespan, they are then slaughtered and and sold. He denied they are his "pets", but you can tell that caring for a life-form for 10-20 years definitely will cause a bond to develop.

It made me think that cows really are just big dogs. But big dogs that we have taken to eating, unfortunately.

I'm not sure I want to keep eating pork and beef. I do eat a lot of chicken these days in lieu of that anyways.

oh wow, well this is a very silence of the lambs like scenario. thanks for sharing. i, too, have witnessed other animals being extra aware of death in the past.

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