I once heard a professor posit that our objection to eating dogs and cats was owing to our coevolution; that somewhere deep in our collective unconscious or racial memory, we knew that those who broke the covenant between companion animal and master were visited with rats and rabies. The not-so-subtle implication of this is that those who eat our furry friends are less evolved, which isn't a path one really wants to travel down to poo-poo eating a literal hot dog.

I once had dinner with a Santerian priestess, who was serving up a whole, roasted pig (head and all). Around our feed ran a different and very affectionate porker. I pulled her aside and she clarified that the pig nuzzling my leg was “not an eating pig.”