Storytellers, news reporters, and historians who make metaphors to try to make sense of the way people behave might find this study inspirational. Especially if they make rank metaphors. The study is about cattle on their journey to being slaughtered
“Cattle’s Social Rank Throughout the Transition from Rangeland to Fattening Affects Beef Quality,” Paola Soberanes-Oblea, Iván Adrián García-Galicia, Mariana Huerta-Jiménez, Jesús Ricardo Gámez-Piñón, Mieke Titulaer, Alma Delia Alarcon-Rojo, and Einar Vargas-Bello-Pérez, Animals, vol. 15, no. 12, 2025, article 1690
The authors explain:
We observed the behavior of 20 heifers at three key points: 72 h after transportation, six weeks during fattening, and while they waited at the slaughterhouse…. The discoloration and chroma of beef were different between the dominant and subordinate animals. The dominant heifers tended to show behavior that negatively influenced beef quality, such as its color and pH. Social rank plays a large role in how cattle behave and beef is produced.
