A drawing from week 1. 

My local butcher store is right next to a vet, and I find that really unfortunate. Always have. I’ve gone past these neighbouring shops almost every day of my life.

This arrangement is kind of Sweeney Todd. A place where people get their pets put down, right next door to a store selling animal flesh for consumption? I’d ask my mum, ‘how can we be sure we sure we’re buying pork and not a dog that was ‘put down’ next door?’

Even if that were the case, what’s the difference? We find it weird or gross that some cultures eat dogs or cats, but why? Why this distinction? Sometimes referred to as “speciesism.” 

A dog owner can take her precious poodle to get pampered and while she’s there, buy some meat from next door. A relatively normal situation. Convenient, even. But for me that sums up the double standards we have towards animals. On the one hand we have a picture of cuddly cute dogs and cats, a place for getting your pets checked up, getting medicine and their nails cut and thousand-dollar operations. Essentially, a shop where animals are treated like humans. And on the other hand, we have a display of cuts of flesh in the store window. A polar opposite animal industry, where animals are raised for slaughter, treated horrendously, killed brutally, out of sight and out of mind. Freedom farms! Juicy pork, full of flavour. Pigs are more intelligent than dogs…