Who will spare a word for the common Canadian cow? A descendant (in gentleness if not genes) of the near-extinct Great Plains buffalo, it is likely to be spared a similar fate. But man's towering stupidity will still play havoc with the herds. Recently, Ralph Klein, the premier of Alberta - Canada's richest province - suggested that the 1.75 million Canadian cattle born before 1997 should be culled. He later recanted, saying that he was not suggesting a bovine holocaust. Rather, he said, the cattle should be turned into hamburger meat and sold to consumers, to convince our American trading partners that Canada is serious about fighting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. BSE is a nasty disease that is believed to be caused by animal parts in cattle feed. To put it simply, we have turned our cows into cannibals. A few years ago, we learned that this was a terrible mistake, and we stopped. But some of that toxic feed apparently escaped detection and, every once in a while, another 'mad' cow pops up, staggering drunkenly, to remind us of our recklessness. It is a minimal threat to us, but just the idea of the disease passing to humans packs an emotional punch. Since the US closed its borders to Canadian cattle in a panic in 2003, Alberta ranchers have lost C$3 billion ($19.2 billion) - and all because of two or three infected cows. Mr Klein acknowledges that a cull is an exercise in damage control and public relations. He says that the beef is perfectly good for hamburgers 'as long as you don't use spines and ganglia and brains and eyeballs'. (I think I will stick to fish). I admit that I would not feel so cynical about all this if it were not for the tragic history of the cow's antecedent, the buffalo. In the 19th century, as many as 70 million buffalo (also known as bison) roamed the Great Plains of central North America. It is said that you could ride on horseback for hours, and see nothing but the glorious, shaggy backs of these benign creatures. But then came the railway, carrying settlers who wanted the land, and commercial hunters who wanted the fur. The carcasses they left behind decayed, and after a time, the expanses of bleached white bones made the prairies look like they were covered in snow. South of the border, the slaughter of the buffalo was a way to starve the Indians, so that they would leave their land. In Canada, the greed for fur had the same effect on the herds. By 1890, only a few hundred buffalo remained on the entire continent. Sharon Butala, a Canadian writer, says she sees 'phantom bison' on the prairie today. It is a reminder that if you walk on four legs and have multiple stomachs, man is the constant enemy.