[ricardobeat]

Don’t worry, if cats tasted good they would be receiving the same treatment!

The amount of cruel farming practices, chemicals, unsustainable methods etc that the US uses while being forbidden in the rest of the world is inexcusable.

[esperent]

> if cats tasted good

How do you know they don't?

By all accounts dogs taste good, but there's only a small number of cultures that eat them.

[Recursing]

Cats are also widely eaten: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_meat

But I think eating someone doesn't need to imply causing them as much suffering as our current farming practices do

[makeitdouble]

They probably don't taste bad...I mean, most animals somewhat taste good (crocodiles, frogs, hogs, deers, pigeons, eels etc). Now, it would be utterly ineffective to try to breed cats for meat, which is IMHO why we have such a small variety of regular meat. We chose the species that were the most convenient, regardless of any other inherent ethical consideration.

So for better or worse the line is purely arbitrary, and people's pet pig being off-limit by virtue of being declared a pet is an example of that.

[mlrtime]

I bet you if you haven't eaten in 3 days the cat would taste pretty good to you too.

I'm partially kidding, but we are afforded to have these discussions in the comfort in our home when we have an abundance of food around us available 24/7. (Speaking of mostly of developed nations)

[petesergeant]

> Don’t worry, if cats tasted good they would be receiving the same treatment!

I don't think that's true: dog meat isn't widely eaten, but enough countries do eat it to suggest it's palatable.

[isoprophlex]

Expensive to breed carnivorous animals though. Chickens, cows, etc. you can directly raise on cheap vegetable matter.

[unnamed76ri]

I used to work in the pet industry and an oft cited statistic was that 1,000,000 cats and dogs are euthanized every year in the US. It would never happen for cultural reasons but, it seems like China could be a booming market for selling these animals as meat instead of letting it all go to waste.

[petesergeant]

I think veterinary drug residue is a big concern here too

[dotancohen]

Presumably these cats and dogs would be slaughtered the same way that current plate-bound cats and dogs are slaughtered.

The bigger issue would be how these animals are bred. Are the eaten cats and dogs typically more muscular and fatter than those raised as pets?