A cat, a dog, a pig, a cow… All of those are animals, but yet we only eat some of them.
How did we decide which animal is up for dinner and which one you love?
According to Jason King, Co-founder of the Animal Liberation Alliance London says this comes down to speciesism:
“This is the premise stating that humans are superior to all other species. Therefore, they are entitle to decide which use we give them,” said King.
King says we are not use to question why we make the arbitrary decision to eat only a few animal.
“It’s such a suppressed question. They teach us to not question it.” Kind continued, “We choose some animals to be worthy of protection by law; worthy of our love; worthy of being considered as part of our family, but we choose other 6 to 10 animals and say ‘well, your are going to be used for food’, and the key here is the word use”
Sometimes it will come down to the way we relate to some animals.
For example, Michelle Black is a pet trainer at PAWsitively happy home says we bond with dogs in such intricate ways.
“They are so ingrained in our cultures [and] our life. They do many things such as being an companion animal, to search and rescue. We grow so close together that maybe that’s why we see them in a different light than other animals,” said Black.
Pip Torrelli, a vegan from the UK that recently moved to London said “We thing some animal are cuter than say a dog or a cat. Because of that we are able to disassociate our selfs from the killing part that goes before the meat is in your plate.”
And what does everyone else say?
We asked a couple students about how they choose who is eaten and who’s not in the following video.
