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What constitutes the value of an animal–?and that of a human–?lies at the center of the debate on animals to which the gift paradigm promises to make a significant contribution. Based on a sociological investigation of the working relationships between farmers and animals, this article shows how the value of an animal can be apprehended through the life and death that humans give to it. The farmer’s investment consists in giving animals a good life, which can be thought of as both the legitimization of their death in the sake of human sustenance and as a sign of gratitude. Gratitude is recognition that these are farm animals–?that they are beings which have a life to live before dying–?and of what they thereby give to humans: life.