1) Many of these dogs were house pets. They were raised and treated as pets their entire lives. The cows/pigs/chickens that undergo the factory farming process were never pets.
If you're concerned about the suffering of animals, why should how an animal was raised matter? Would you still care if they were dogs bred and raised for slaughter? If you would still care, why even make this argument?
YokoGeri posted...
2) The factory farming/slaughterhouse process, while horrific in its own right, is all about profit and efficiency. It's horrible, and I certainly have problems with it, but it wasn't designed to cause wanton suffering. This dog festival is another thing. There is the belief that the more the dog suffers, the tastier the meat will be. Regardless of that belief or not, "Many dogs suffer before being killed, there are videos of dogs being beaten to death with metal bars, skinned alive, boiled alive and suffer many diseases" (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee_and_Dog_Meat_Festival).
If "profit" it is a noble enough motive for you to absolve people of the morality of torturing animals, why pretend to care about the way animals are treated? Are the profits gained from the slaughter and sale of dogs in other countries not enough justification for their treatment of animals?
YokoGeri posted...
Are the pigs/cows/chickens in factory farming skinned alive or boiled alive? I have seen the videos, they almost made me cry.
4) Dogs and humans have co-evolved together and their biology has been intertwined for ages. Dogs and human have been together before dogs were dogs and humans were humans. They copy human behaviors, learned to bark to communicate with humans, and release endorphins when they see "their" humans. A study shows that a very young puppy will walk to a person instead than to an adult dog (if he hasn't' met either), showing how oriented to humans their brain is now, they're basically hardwired to worship us.
They certainly are different from a chicken or cow, wouldn't you say?
If the social relationship dogs have to humans in your culture is the thing that affords them moral value, why should we not equally value animals that carry equal social value to other cultures?
YokoGeri posted...
5) again, there are news stories of dogs fighting snakes, cougars, even fucking bears to defend "their" humans, that is the degree of loyalty and awareness that a dog has. They also lead blind people, go on rescue missions and some are trained to detect diabetic attacks and situations like that before they happen. Some dogs even offer their own bodies as pillows to help humans suffering a seizure. What other species does this?
Try showing me evidence or cows fighting cougars to defend their farmers, chickens offering their bodies as pillows to help humans suffering a seizure, "blind leading pigs", etc. I'll wait. If you happen to show me more than 10 cases, I'll concede on this.
Like I said before pigs serve as service animals and react to humans socially in all the same ways dogs do, and even posted academic sources to back my claim. Why don't you post some proof that they don't? ---