The video is to prove a point really fast, but, cows actually do only eat proteins. They have three stomachs that they use to feed grass to bacterial colonies, which they then pull into their fourth stomach to eat, with any of the grass that's left un-eaten by the bacteria being shit straight out without being processed any further. They don't eat the grass, the grass is there to feed what they do eat, which is supplemented by eating any large animal small enough to fit in their mouth. I read a study once that almost all cows when dissected had at least 1 animal in their digestive system at a time.

The notion that cows are good peaceful harmless herbivores who eat nothing but grass is nonsense. Here's a video of a cow eating the corpse of a donkey. Of note: there's grass right next to the body. And it isn't just a result of cows being fucked up by human domestication, wild deer (who you cannot blame on humans malnourishing it or contaminating its feed or whatever) do it too.

constructing an elaborate worldview out of a kindergarten level understanding of biology and then getting extremely smug about it annoys me relentlessly. Cows would eat you if they had the chance

  • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Do you think 'herbivore eats nothing but plants' is accurate and a useful tool when herbivores don't, in fact, eat only plants?

    • Pezevenk [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      "Herbivore eats nothing but plants" is not something the food chain model says about herbivores. The food chain model is about how energy is macroscopically transferred from one level to the other.

      Herbivores are called herbivores because they are adapted to eating plants and by far the bulk of their diet is, well, plants. If a cow opportunistically eats a dead bird or something or if a dog eats a plant, that's not "haha food chain OWNED" because it's not important macroscopically. This the "men experience reverse sexism" of biology.

      • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        It really isn't and I think you're reading to far into what I'm trying to say. Lol. I'm not trying to say that cows aren't herbivores or adapted to eat mostly plants. I'm just saying it's more complex then the model implies. Thats all.

        • Pezevenk [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I’m just saying it’s more comples then the model implies.

          That's true for pretty much every scientific model ever, because it's pretty much impossible to discuss something in its full complexity at all times. If plants in one ecosystem start dying, the entire ecosystem is fucked. If herbivores start dying en masse, the carnivores are fucked because while maybe some of them can eat some grass every now and then, they can't survive on that. That's what the food chain tells you. Energy transfer happens through levels and if one breaks then everyone above is fucked.

          • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Yeah, I'll give you that. I guess I just hate things that skimp on the details because the whole, complex picture can be so damn interesting sometimes.

            I'm not trying to defend the op btw. I have no idea what they're trying to say. If they're shitting on vegans though they can fuck off.

            • Pezevenk [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              I think it's a weird attempt to say "cows would eat you so why do you like them lol". I don't really understand.