Why didn’t the Israelits eat from their flocks when they wanted meat in the wilderness

Question: 

When Israel left the Egipt, they have a lot of folks of oxen, sheep. God was feeding them with manna in the wilderness, and after a time the people asked for meat and God gave them quails. Why didn’t they cut their animals from folks to eat meat? 

We don’t find in the Bible a specific answer for this question, but considering that their folks were the wealth of the people of Israel, it couldn’t be wasted during their trip, because they had to bring constantly sacrifices from these animals and to leave enough animals to maintain and multiply the folks. What do the readers think? I am very curious what explanation would give the cattle breeders at this question and especially those who are from Normandic people.