It’s Just Now Becoming Illegal to Consume Dogs and Cats in the United States

Source: © Shutterstock

The very idea that a stray dog or cat could end up being slaughtered and sold as food for human consumption is enough to give most people nightmares. Imagine what you would do if that was your animal that has somehow gotten separated from you and was then slaughtered before you were able to be reunited. For most people, this is one of the worst possible scenarios they could ever imagine when it comes to their pets. That’s because most people don’t think of their dogs and cats as pets. For many, they are an integral part of the family. For some individuals, their pets are their family and they are so close to them that the very idea of something happening to them is enough to send them recoiling.

If this is how you feel about your pets, you’re probably going to be surprised to learn that up until a bill was passed very recently, it was actually legal do this sort of thing in 45 states throughout the U.S. That’s a staggering statistic, to say the least. It’s also something that most people know little to nothing about. After all, it’s not like federal or state governments go around advertising the fact that however unpopular it might be, it’s legal to slaughter innocent animals for food.

If you strongly believe that no animals should be slaughtered for food, you’re probably thinking that it’s not any different to slaughter a dog or a cat than a cow, lamb or chicken. However, there is one major difference. For the most part, cows, lambs and chickens are not bred to be companion animals. Although they are not really considered wild animals, they’re certainly not considered to be domesticated to the level of dogs and cats, either. Therefore, it’s difficult to consider them in the same category, even if you don’t believe that it’s ever okay to consume an animal for food, no matter what the circumstances might be.

In order to keep things on an even keel, this article will deal only with the consumption of animals like dogs and cats. This is a practice that is unfortunately widely accepted in many countries around the world, but most people don’t expect it to be legal in the United States. The fact that it took this long for the house to pass a bill that would make it illegal is troubling in and of itself. It’s even more troubling when you consider the fact that actually enforcing the law will probably be extremely difficult, even under the best of circumstances.

When it’s all said and done, you kind of have to ask yourself who would be willing to knowingly consume meat from a dog or a cat in the first place. That’s such a troubling scenario that most people would rather go hungry than do so. Granted, it’s a lot more troubling for animal lovers than it is for those who don’t have as much of a soft spot for dogs and cats. For those that really love animals, it’s extremely difficult to think that something like this could still be happening and that it hasn’t been outlawed a long time ago. For other people, it may not come as such a shock, but it’s still not the most appetizing idea, to say the least.

You also have to ask yourself where this type of meat would come from if it were legal, which it has been in all but five states up until now. After all, do you really want to be eating meat from a largely unregulated source? When you’re eating beef or chicken, you’re eating food that’s coming from animals that have been raised to provide food for human consumption. However, in this case, you might be consuming food from animals that are largely unwanted. In that case, you have to start asking yourself if the animals are healthy, what type of food they have consumed themselves, so on and so forth. In other words, it opens up a lot of possibilities that no one really wants to think about, for obvious reasons. In reality, this is something that should have been banned a long time ago. Hopefully, the law will become even stronger and the FDA will find a way to enforce it. As far as that part goes, only time will tell.