“It is always the earth that makes the animal.”
I have long been fascinated by the horses of the Camargue.
They are bred the way free-range horses in the American West were (and still are in some places.)
They are meant to live natural lives, to mate naturally, and to foal naturally.
You’ll note that selective breeding does occur with these horses– “the right stallion” is put with the mares.
But they want to produce a very natural, very rustic horse.
And the only way to do that is to allow the horses certain liberties to allow Darwinian forces to act upon their populations through the generations.
It’s not Neptune. It’s Darwin.
it seems ironic to call it ‘radical’, but that’s the word that comes to mind.
allowing easily domesticated animals any glimpse of natural, Darwinian existence seems radical.