House bans eating of cats, dogs

[jcgoldie]

19. As a person who owns many cows, dairy goats, and chickens...

... and I have also raised pigs in the past and have pet dogs and cats and 4 working livestock dogs... I can say that IMHO there is a rather substantial difference between companion animals like dogs and cats and herd animals or especially birds. I love and respect all of my animals but comparing the brains and behavior of a dog with that of a chicken or cow seems to me to fail to grasp the depth of intelligence and personality of a dog. All are domesticated obviously, but livestock have been bred for 1000s of years for meat purposes not to be the companions of human beings. (And I am telling you my wife would attest I REALLY love my dairy goats who I have hours of contact with each day on the milk stand milking by hand.) But as sweet as they can be and also show intelligence in a lot of ways, they are not like a dog. I don't relish killing any animal, but if you provide it with a humane good life and kill it in a humane fashion to feed people, then there is nothing ethically wrong with that just in my opinion.

I wanted to edit to add that I do also realize that the vast majority of the beef chicken and pork that we consume is not raised under the humane conditions we maintain on our small farm. Feedlots and caged chicken factories are neither humane nor healthy as a rule.