I mean, I see both sides of this argument. I personally wouldn’t eat a pet, even to survive. But I know people who keep farm animals for meat that treat those animals like pets, right up until they eat them. I don’t know if it’s a guilt thing, or compartmentalizing the violence away from the nurturing, or if they really don’t mind eating animals they considered pets. But it’s not an uncommon thing.
The purpose of a food animal is food, and treating it well up until it serves its purpose is the humane thing to do. Many cultures have ceremonies for their respect for their food animals.
Plus I think they taste better if you treat them well.
Sure, but that’s not the argument here. There’s a difference between treating an animal humanely and treating an animal like a pet. All animals should be treated humanely. Not all animals make good pets.
People also treat pets very differently.
Farm cats and dogs might live their entire lives outdoors, get treats, are expected to fill a role, and are not pampered or treated like a human. I had large number of these kinds of pets as a kid in a rural area and they were fantastic pets. We also raised pigs for 4-H, and after the first year treated them on the same level as the dogs and cats, with play time and treats, plenty of room to roam, and spent time hanging out with them. They were pets and not just present to be fed and watered.
Not all pets are pampered house pets. Most food stock animals are just food stock and not pets, sure, but that doesn’t mean that nobody can raise them like pets and still eat them.
I really liked our pigs. They had names and I took good care of them. I fed them and scratched them and played with them. They had a dry warm house to sleep in and a big yard with grass and weeds and trees to run around and play in. They were livestock. That is the reality of farming.
