The moral and economic legitimacy of the industrialized animal production intensive systems implemented in France from the 1960s is now contested for different reasons. The criticisms are mainly formalized on the "animal well-being" issue. However, the cattle raisers have also been affected by the violence of the systems and by a reified work organization which forces them to repress the affective and relational side of their work. The suffering generated by these systems challenges the very meaning of cattle raising activities and the endurance of the social bond constructed by ten thousand years of history shared with domestic animals.
Animal production; work psychodynamics; work organization; social bond