Why are there more cows in the US than buffalo?
Because cows are profitable, buffalo are not.
Bleeding hearts interfering with the market.
Because cows are profitable, buffalo are not.
There were once more buffalo than cows and buffalo were profitable. People shot all the buffalo until there were almost none left.
The only reason this doesn't happen with cows is that they are domesticated and purposely bred in very large numbers for eventual slaughter. Do we really want to do that with elephants?
Buffalo (Bison) can be very profitable for meat. The problem is that they can’t be herded like cattle, they go where they want to. (a herd escaped here in NM’s east mountains and it took a long time to round them up.
“Because cows are profitable, buffalo are not.”
They cross cows and buffalo now (Beefalo). Unfortunately that doesn’t mean a Holstein the size of a minivan, just healthier meat and a hardier animal.