Let's talk about the inverse. If it's not okay to kill an animal for consumption, when is it okay to kill an animal? Is it okay to kill the rabbit that's eating our garden? What about the mouse that's living in our garage? The mosquito that's annoying the shit out of us?
Of course it is. All of these things are okay. The reason is that we're much better than those things. We're humans. We run shit. We make roads and cars and buildings. If we want to kill something that isn't going to have a massive impact on other humans, then fuck it, let's do it. Sure, we probably shouldn't go kill a blue whale...but only because they're few in number and getting completely rid of them may have negative effects.
Why don't Westerners think it's okay to eat dogs and cats? Because we like dogs and cats...and we see no reason to kill something we like when we can kill something we don't give a shit about, like a cow. Or a chicken. Or a trout.
Sure, we could eat plants and supplements and leave the animals alone. We could also only live in tiny rooms in skyscrapers as to completely minimize our footprint into wooded areas. But, in the end, we don't want to do that. We want to have our own space, and we want to eat cows. So we do it. Because we win.
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