Why would the tnuctipun have made an intelligent food animal?

We think it is because antibiotics are being given to food animals.

Perhaps they were food animals for one of the species.

Some were harvested as food animals, early on, but eventually the practice was discontinued.

This applies in a lesser extent to all food animals.

That's a recipe for growing drug resistant bacteria in food animals.

But the fate of less charismatic food animals is also a brutal business.

"Have you found what was killing the food animals?"

The ustuzou kill our food animals, but we can raise more.

Cloning is only allowed with food animals, the best of them.