If cattle could speak, I wonder if they would appreciate this perspective of the situation. Personally I doubt it, which makes calling it "mutualism" a euphemism.
If treated well I think they would appreciate it until suddenly they would stop appreciating it.
From an evolutionary point of view is definitely a (perverted) mutualism (perverted as in the artificial selection on cows make them quite unfit to human-free life).
On the appreciation side it would be relevant to know more about how cows see humans. I believe many cows in farms are quite happy and many (more) cows are quite miserable.
> Personally I doubt it, which makes calling it "mutualism" a euphemism.
Overall if we assume cows do not have a cultural understanding of "humans are going to kill us" this would look more like a projection of our society on them.
I don't think them lacking knowledge of that fact changes the situation any, though pedantically I'll admit that it would change their perspective of it.
It changes everything in may opinion, but this is highly subjective as it is a human-to-human moral judgment.
My view on the topic is that there is a predefined innate concept of a good life for all complex life, including cows, and with my current knowledge I see no reason why a cow in a farm would be unable to live a good life. Obviously in too many cases industrial optimization is clearly opposed to this, still I see no reason not to call [0] (assuming the context given as true) a mutually beneficial relationship
In a hypothetical reality where they are not slaughtered so early in their life cycle just because humans want something that tastes more interesting than grain, I could agree with that sentiment. That's not the reality we live in, however.
From an evolutionary point of view is definitely a (perverted) mutualism (perverted as in the artificial selection on cows make them quite unfit to human-free life).
On the appreciation side it would be relevant to know more about how cows see humans. I believe many cows in farms are quite happy and many (more) cows are quite miserable.
> Personally I doubt it, which makes calling it "mutualism" a euphemism.
Overall if we assume cows do not have a cultural understanding of "humans are going to kill us" this would look more like a projection of our society on them.