They were all modified through the generations to make them a commodity. If they have no purpose, them going extinct is not a bad thing. Most of them are optimized for meat or other purposes and they probably can't survive outside. It would be humane to let them go extinct after we transition. FWIW we already wiped them off the Earth, you don't find a lot of wild cows or chickens other than the ones we have modified.

> they probably can't survive outside

You should come and see the sheep roaming around the mountains near me.

They keep the grasslands under control, and they happily mind their own business. I don't think they need genocide.

Many breeds of sheep need to be sheared as they've been bred to not shed their wool.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/0...

Who's going to pay to transport sheep to grassland? Who's going to rehabilitate a pig that's never been outside a cage? What do we do with cows? There's a lot of unanswered questions, and not many mountains waiting for unwanted sheep.

I didn't say we should move any around. The person I was replying to said extinction as in all of them, even those minding their own business elsewhere.

> They keep the grasslands under control, and they happily mind their own business. I don't think they need genocide.

I never asked for them to be killed. Letting them go extinct is different from killing them en masse.

Chickens, cows and pigs are overbred to have more meat etc. some of those breeds can't walk properly anymore... They are far from what their early ancestors were...

I was pointing out that the people who say we shouldn't eat meat haven't really thought it through. I would guess that this would be an unintended consequence of their actions and I've never heard it said - the only reason these animals exist is because we've bred them for food - if we don't eat them any more then they'll no longer exist.

I'm pretty sure the Animal Liberation, considered one of the founding blocks of militant vegetarians and vegans in occident, raised this question in… 1975. I think it would be like horses, you would still find (healthy, relatively happy) chicken, cows, pigs, in the countryside; but in smaller numbers and not tortured by millions in factories. No "unintended consequence" there.

ok, I've said this to quite a few people and the result is pretty well what it was here, denial and outrage :-) I don't think its well publicized but happy to be proved otherwise.