It's proved that kids that name their chicken, pig, lamb, rabbit, fish, dog or horse cannot accept them to be killed and cannot eat them. thus numbers on farm cattle.
And as a counter-example, I know families in the rural midwest that name their livestock while raising them. The important bit is that they teach the children the difference between pets and livestock early on so it doesn't come as a shock to them that their dinner was grazing out on the back 40 just the other day. It's only shocking to those who aren't acquainted with the realities of agriculture life.
I have a bit of experience with this since we have been running a chicken retirement community for the past four or five years as our chickens, now beloved pets of my teenage daughter are well into their senior years. We get eggs, but they are very expensive eggs given the feed cost/egg ratio is changing significantly as egg production wanes and feed prices are on a continuous trajectory upwards.
We do have limits - my daughter has accepted that I draw the line at vet visits. If a chicken is sick enough to need a vet, it will be allowed to die peacefully or be euthanized if there are severe injuries.
At the end of the day, it's just the cycle of life, and we knew that from an early age.
> thus numbers on farm cattle.
Try to imagine a farmer setting aside time to individually name a thousand pigs. Lol.