"The
term
“bacon”
is
used
to
describe
the cured
belly
of
a swine
carcass.
If meat
from
other
portions
of the
carcass
is
used,
the product
name
must be
qualified
to identify
the
portions, e.g., “Pork
Shoulder Bacon.” "
So labeling Vegetarian Bacon as just Bacon is breaking da law.
I have read many far before in books, television, and others, also that pigs are more intelligent than dogs. It isn't new. (I do not remember them to cite now though)
All this highlights that the bond between man and dog, or really man and anything, is much more about the emotional connection than an intellectual one.
personally I've had more engaging eye contact with a pig (who we then proceeded to turn in to a variety of sausages) compared with any other animal. falling back to the various studies showing how the dilation of pupils relates directly with cognition, it suffices to say that you can gage someone's intelligence by looking in to their eyes. it is not then a stretch to see that a pig is intelligent when it catches eyes with you (which not that many animals can do).
The implicit assumption is that we should not eat "intelligent" animals. How does it matter? Which animals are pets and which are food is largely a cultural agreement. Humans are very good at creating abstract mental categories - this "dog" is my pet, but this other "dog" is my food. There are several communities in the world which keep dogs as both pets and food[1].
Not to mention the whole issue of defining intelligence itself. In context of this article, the better way to put it would be, pigs are more anthropomorphic than dogs in their reactions. One could make an evolutionary case for not eating humans, and the tendency to not eat animals that seem more "human" can be seen as a side-effect.
In fact, I'd argue that pet dogs are bred specifically for traits like "obedience" which tends to favour less intelligence if anything --- so it's not surprising that pigs, which aren't selected for such traits, could be more intelligent than dogs.
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[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 54.4 ms ] thread[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarian_bacon
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/7c48be3e-e516-4ccf...
"The term “bacon” is used to describe the cured belly of a swine carcass. If meat from other portions of the carcass is used, the product name must be qualified to identify the portions, e.g., “Pork Shoulder Bacon.” "
So labeling Vegetarian Bacon as just Bacon is breaking da law.
What about a pig with a higher IQ but which was happy with its lot?
https://youtu.be/bAF35dekiAY?t=1m13s
Not to mention the whole issue of defining intelligence itself. In context of this article, the better way to put it would be, pigs are more anthropomorphic than dogs in their reactions. One could make an evolutionary case for not eating humans, and the tendency to not eat animals that seem more "human" can be seen as a side-effect.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat#Pet_breeds
Indeed. The same standard applied to say, severely impaired humans would obviously hold no water.