(08-09-2012, 04:31 AM)writer811 Wrote: True, but dogs are food for millions of people as well. Horses are food in many countries outside of the U.S. and pigs are food everywhere (And still kept as pets). Certain species of cockroaches are served as food and kept as pets. Rabbits and squirrels are kept as pets and food. I don't think animals should be considered one or the other. Why can't they be both?
Goats are staple food in Middle East, and it is also acceptable as food all over the world. So we are talking about billions of people instead of millions who would eat them.
Dogs are not common as food even in places where they are acceptable as food, because you have to feed them a meat diet which makes it not economical to raise them as food. We are talking about only millions people might have ever eaten them. Well, maybe it goes into tens millions, but definitely no where close to billions.
Rabbits are not nearly as common as food either, because they offer as little meat as chicken but grow much slower. Yes, there are more people using rabbits as pets than goats for sure, because of their small size.
Pigs are staple food for billions of people around the world, very few people see them as pet even though they can be cute too.
Horses are not common as food. They don't grow fast at all thus makes it not economical to raise them as food. They were also used mostly as either transportation or labor for much of the last few thousand years. They are not a common pet today probably due to the maintenance you have to do in order to keep them.
I didn't say they can't be both. It is just the way how most people think of them. To be a popular pet, first the animal has to be off the list of popular food. Goats does not fit into that characteristics because it is a popular food, on the top of the fact being a little too big as a typical pet when reach adult size.
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