[mekdoonggi]

This comment is low-effort, but in the case you are genuinely confused, the herd refers to the animals on a given ranch. As in, you have a ranch of 100 acres and 100 bison on it. The owner of the ranch owns a herd of 100.

The bison aren't roaming free on the land. It would be nice if they were, and there are efforts to restore wild bison herds, but these are commercial herds. Far better than cows and CAFOs.

[andyjohnson0]

I don't know, but I wonder if your parent commenter is making a philosophical point about the potentially illusory nature of owning a group of semi-wild animals. Like, if the only way you have of asserting your ownership is to use them as a food source, then do you really "own" them? Or do they exist outside and apart from human ideas of property?

Or like owning a mountain or a centuries-old tree. Does that even mean anything?

[maxerickson]

Owning is, like, a human construct man. If you can slaughter a herd of animals without facing any human imposed consequences, it's probably fair within the bounds of language and meaning to say that you own them.

[andyjohnson0]

Owning might be a human construct; but, arguably, a herd or a mountain or a tree is not. Which I guess was the point I was trying to suggest.

See also: Is it possible to own a cat?

[maxerickson]

I'm very open to the possibility that I am missing your point, but my point was that you are playing word games.

Do I own this T-shirt if it can burn? Do I own this stick or am I just carrying it for a while? Is this my banana, or does everything belong to the universe?

[andyjohnson0]

Not playing word games, but mostly just thinking aloud. Thanks for your interesting replies.

[DANmode]

This is a very generous read of the original comment - but that is what we’re supposed to do here, and I regret not doing it in my comment.

Do you and they not have any vague understanding of how ranching works? Indeed, there seems to be misunderstandings here.

The philosophical question is interesting, but eating them once in a while is not what ranching is, and ignorance of where your food comes from isn’t cool.

[singleshot_]

Pierson v. Post 3 Cai. R. 175 (1805) is instructive. Your post is a great starting point for exploration of basic property law. TLDR ownership consists of a varied bundle of many different kinds of rights which can arise in many different and possibly conflicting ways.