[ddoran]

> discounting welfare issues, you can do what you want with them if you're the owner

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "discounting welfare issues". Sure, if you discount the laws that protect dogs, they're not protected, but The Animal Welfare act (2006) does exist, very much does protect dogs from people "doing what you want with them" and is enforced.

Of course, that protection is not offered at all costs. If a dog attacks a person, or invades farmland and attacks an animal, then the priority of that person/farm animal takes precedence over the dog.

[krona]

In other words, people can do what they want with their dogs. They just need to kill them first. There are lots of ways you can do that, but starvation isn't one of them, because that's a welfare issue. Seems pretty obvious.

[kcanini]

What? No. You cannot just kill your dog for any reason. That is illegal, immoral, and inhumane.

[krona]

Immoral, perhaps. Inhumane, not necessarily. Illegal, no. (Where I live, obviously.)

[legolas2412]

How is a dog special? Compared to say, a rat or a chicken or a cow?

[kcanini]

I guess you're assuming that I'm okay with killing rats, chickens, and cows?

I'm a vegetarian, so dogs are not special to me in that regard. I only mentioned dogs because I was replying to a comment that mentioned dogs specifically.

[legolas2412]

Yeah, I meant that we kill rodents and pests easily. But are sentimentally attached to dogs and try to rationalize it. I am not attached to a dog, and if I wanted to eat it, I should be allowed to.