Dogs and cats as...food?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/09/china.animals/index.html
WARNING: This may disgust you, but it's worth watching... even if you don't watch it, it still exists. It's about the dog and cat meat market in China, and legislative efforts to prohibit their slaughter as food.
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When I was young, we got a fish tank that we kept in the dining room. Whenever my mom would cook fish, my brother would say "don't look"... and pretend to hide the fish from their pan-fried bretheren.
Well.
Part of the reason I call myself vegetarian is that raising meat takes an awful lot of energy, water, and food, which can make it less sustainable than other choices. Yes, by the way, I know that raising vegetables and grain does kill things, and even the livestock industry can be smarter about it. Howver, as far as I can tell, on the whole, eating local vegetables is the least wasteful way to eat.
But part of the reason is that I've always felt that the difference between animals we love and animals we eat has been largely arbitrary, and that it's a little hypocritical. Why do we eat chickens and keep parrots, or eat pigs and keep dogs and cats, or eat tuna and keep goldfish? Not everyone has that kind of moral dilemma, but I solved mine by trying to keep my meat intake close to zero.
I don't claim that meat is murder, and in fact, I think it's rather tasty. (I admit to "cheating" every once in a while.) This is also why I'd rather eat meat than throw it away, and why I'm willing to compromise when eating with my family (or in groups, et al). I don't care if YOU eat meat, but this is what I think about whenever I order the same veggie sandwich over and over, and this is why I hate it when YOU say "oh, he's not REALLY vegetarian". Because this is what I think about ALL the time, and why I make the decisions I do.
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Sorry to get on a soapbox. I try very hard not to be snobby, or to preach, or to push my choices onto others. But every once in a while I have to let it out.