Not an overly helpful comment, but this is loosely the premise behind the movie 'Okja' on Netflix. It was an interesting idea and made you see both sides. Weird it seems to be coming true.
That final scene... oof. (bawl)
A TV reporter became lost on the back roads and stopped at a farm to get directions. As he was talking to the farmer he noticed a pig with a wooden leg. “This could be a great story for the Six O’Clock News. How did that pig lose his leg?” he asked the farmer. “Well”, said the farmer, “that’s a very special pig. One night not too long ago we had a fire start in the barn, and that pig squealed so loud and long that he woke everyone, and by the time we got there he had herded all the other animals out of the barn. Saved them all.”
“And that was when he hurt his leg?” asked the journalist anxious for a story. “Nope, he pulled through that just fine.” said the farmer. “Though a while later, I was back in the woods when a bear attacked me. Well, sir, that pig was nearby and he came running and rammed that bear from behind and then chased him off. He saved me for sure.”
“Wow! So the bear injured his leg then?” questioned the reporter. “No. He came away without a scratch. Though a few days later, my tractor turned over in a ditch and I was knocked unconscious. Well, that pig dove into the ditch and pulled me out before I got cut up in the machinery.” “Ahh! So his leg got caught under the tactor?” asked the journalist. “Noooo. We both walked away from that one.” says the farmer.
“So how did he get the wooden leg?” asked the journalist. “Well”, the farmer replied, “A pig like that, you don't eat all at once”!
It is in French and subtitled, but so exactly relevant to your point!
On the topics of pigs, dogs, and pets; most people don't realize how intelligent and affectionate cows are. Dairy farmers often love their cows more than their dogs. And the farmers that have dairy cows and other cows have this mental barrier where one group is food and the other is family. I bet most people that have eaten a hamburger have never pet a cow.
This is not some meat-is-murder tirade - I'm not even vegetarian. It's just neat to think about the assumptions that construct our worldview.
Given that most Americans have definitely never pet a cow, and I'd go as far as to propose most have probably never even seen a cow in person, that's probably a very safe wager. But what percent of people that have pet a cow, would you wager also do eat beef?
I've never considered the possibility of someone never ever having seen a damn cow.
I don't know if people are more crazy or more horrible. But whenever I see moral grandstanding on HN it always reminds me of experiences in SV and Seattle watching peers step over or ignore homeless, distressed human beings by day and do the same kind of moral grandstanding over drinks at night.