The video above shows a man eating a burger, clearly enjoying his meal, when the narrator says, “This man is eating a Golden Retriever burger.”
Vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters alike are likely to wince at such a horror, their stomachs upset at the very thought of eating an intelligent, loyal dog. But why is that more upsetting than a cow, pig, chicken, or any other animal who is killed and turned into ground meat for human consumption?
According to Beyond Carnism, an invisible matrix that meat-eaters are plugged into teaches them that it’s acceptable to eat certain types of animals and not others — that it’s okay to eat the flesh of a baby cow but not of a puppy.
In a second video, Melanie Joy, Ph.D, explains for non-vegans how seeing pigs, cows, and chickens on dinner plates is just as horrifying to vegans as seeing dogs or cats would be.
Joy challenges a popular misconception that vegans are preachy and extreme in their practices by asking non-vegans to imagine they find out that their meat comes from puppies and kittens, farmed in painful, torturous ways before being slaughtered for lunch and dinner.
Joy proposes that non-vegans who want to support vegans can dive into discussions by simply saying two powerful words: “I understand.”
