For all you vegitarians and vegans?

Question

what would happen to cows if everone stopped eating meat. would we put them in a forest or in a lake. how would they survive.

but they have evolved to live like they do and it would take a while for them to evovle back

Answer 1

I'll do my part to reduce the cow population by eating a big bloody steak tonight.

Answer 2

Okay first I wanna say that I believe that animals are here for people to eat them... even though I am vegetarian. In no way do I pressure people or think they should stop eating meat if they don't feel any harm in eating it. I just can't stand the idea of eating a living thing so I don't ^_^

Cows did not "evolve"... even though they are on farms they are still on open land with grass and grains and if not eaten that is where they would remain. Unless of course it's not an organic meat cow (like we like to have here in oregon) in which case they are fed but if set free they would still be able to survive on their own. It is true that there are too many cows (one of the causes of global warming) and so if farmers and companies didn't feel pressure to provide the meat then they would not be breeding more and more cows... and we would have a normal amount. They would just eat off the land like they were born to do, just like every other animal. Ex: I had a pet squirral and even though we raised it from a baby (it's eyes were closed when we found it) he still did what his animal instincts told him to. He burried nuts all over the house, he climbed a fake tree, and ran around all crazy when we played, and when it came to mateing season he bit my mother because he needed to be let outside to do his thing (it made him crazy!). So it doesn't matter how an animal is raised, they are still going to have those survival instincts. They only know the basic of needs and they make sure they fulfill them. The society, the environment, and the economy would all benefit if we stopped eating cows.... but that's never going to happen :)

Answer 3

Since cows don't swim well, we'd have to put them in a forest & they would survive by eating grasses & shrubs. However, the other animals that were native to the forest would then die of starvation because the cows would be eating all of the food. If the cow population was left to breed naturally, without man to intervene, then nature would keep a balance of animals. Now that man has screwed things up for profit & greed, there's not much chance this would work in a positive way for man or beast!

Answer 4

There would not be as many cows because people would stop farming (breeding) them. Not only that, our rivers would be a lot cleaner...I live next to a river and the runoff from the cow crap from all of the farms around here creates a nasty plague of bluegreen algae every summer. Not fun to swim in.

Answer 5

We could just let them be..live a natural life and not produce so many and clear so many rainforests just to produce beef to eat. Anyway this will be a gradual process, the demand for meat is naturally declining, so the production will decline. Slowly but surely.

Answer 6

If you're one of those people that say that animals would over-populate the earth if everyone stopped eating meat, let me say that you're all idiots. Humans have, by far, over-populated the earth, and no non-Human animal could compete with it. If more and more people turned vegetarian, the demand for meat would slowly decrease. Thus, so would the production of meat, and the animals could go back to living their lives like they're supposed to.

Answer 7

There are too many cows on the earth. It's bad for the planet. They take up too much space and eat too much food. They cut down rainforest in South American to raise cows. The cow population needs to be reduced. That's one of the reasons why people, specifically americans, need to eat less beef. All these cows should never have been bred in the first place.

Answer 8

There are too many cows. They release a lot of gas - thus contributing to green house effect. If possible, ostrich should replace cows.

Answer 9

We'd use them to make leather pocketbooks for the rich girls on Madison Ave. No, really- the cattle producing "ranchers" would use up their inventory (no way in heck EVERYBODY would stop eating meat...) and stop intentionally breeding more animals. The land out west would go back to being natural and not "cow burnt" (be a big boy and read a little about the environmental issues regarding ranching, No More Bull by Howard Lyman is a good start). Less of my tax dollars would be spent on medicare for people killing themselves with meat (more money to pay for the war overseas, yippee!). Dare I think it? Perhaps America would loose a little weight.
Your question is bogus and meant to be a dig. Please read a little about vegetarianism and stop trying to make us look like saps or chumps. Compassion is a nice thing, don't belittle people about it.

Answer 10

Let me first say, it would be impossible to release them into the wild. It would be catastrophic for the ecosystems and it would never be done.
Now, should the demand for meat decrease, it's not just a case of not breeding more. Farmers aren't going to keep excess animals if they aren't going to make a profit out of them, it costs money to feed and keep them and no farmer is going to pay for that if we won't get anything out of it. No, said excess animals would be slaughtered. Anyone who believes vegetarianism 'saves' animals is very naive.
Hell, if no one ate meat, all meat animals would have to be killed, and their species would be practically wiped out.