This is Sean Whalen (prion).
I don't agree with the theory that the first Autarchs made Urth self-sufficient by seeding the planet with animals. Typhon, according to the doctor who treats Severian, had already brought the Bear Tower to Urth before there were any Autarchs, and he even calls it a zoetic transport (UNS 258-259).
Also, is everyone certain that the marriage customs of the animal handlers has been misunderstood by Severian? Couldn't it just be the name-influences-the-thing-named sort of thing? Since it's called animal husbandry, that's what it becomes. It's not as if the same sort of thing doesn't happen elsewhere on Urth in the books.
prion