Would I eat a cow if it was treated like a dog?

Sounds like kind of a silly question, doesn't it? But it's a serious one.

Inspired by this line someone wrote: "If I wouldn't eat a dog no matter what, why should I want to suddenly eat a cow if it has been treated like a dog?".

The "treatment" we are talking about here is with regards to the conditions of the cow's life^[1]. For the cow to have a "good" life where it's free to do what it wants to and it isn't mistreated in any way. Taken care of as nicely as someone's pet dog would be. (We can imagine the same scenario for a chicken or pig or any other farm animal, too.)

Well, first, I ask, would I not eat a dog? No matter what?

A couple things come to mind:

• I generally have no reason to eat a dog, so yeah why would I
• "No matter what" --> well if it was a survival situation, and I needed to eat the dog to live, then yes I would (but obviously still generally I would never choose to eat a dog if I didn't have to)
• There is obviously the cultural association that dogs are our pets/friends, so from that lens, it feels particularly wrong to eat a dog^[2]

So say I'm hungry and a dog strolls by. Will I go kill and eat the dog? No. Or say a dog-meat merchant strolls by. Will I buy the dog meat and eat it for lunch? No. Why? Because I have yummy fruits and vegetables and rice and beans and tofu in my fridge that I can eat and that provide me all the nutrition I need to be healthy and strong and live long. There's no need to eat the dog. The dog is my friend^[3]. The dog is (or was...) a living creature, just like me. Even if it is already dead, and that eatable meat is already there, ready to be used: I will still not use it. Why? At this point, for me, it just feels a little weird to eat something that used to be alive. If I have plant options, then let the living stay living and let the dead stay dead -- not digested by me. It feels almost like sacrilege to eat the dead, like I'm violating the memory and dignity of that animal. (Related train of thought in Rick and Morty's Vegan Propaganda#Interlude An Anecdote on Animal Suicide and Roadkill Meat).

Ok, well, everything I just said above can be said about the cow strolling by as well. I don't need to eat the cow. I have yummy plants in my fridge. The cow is my friend, or could be, just as much as any dog could be. I'm certainly not going to hope that someone kills the cow early in its lifespan (because elderly-cow meat I think is not good to eat), because, well, that would not be very nice to the cow, would it? Let's treat the cow like a creature that deserves respect and deserves to be treated well -- killing an animal that doesn't want to die will never be good treatment, no matter how pleasant of a life it had so far. And, like I said for the dog, it also just feels weird/wrong to partake in consumption of the animal that used to be alive. Sure, there's nothing un-natural about humans eating meat, because food-chain has been a thing for all-time. But given that I have plants as an option, I'd prefer not to despoil the beauty that this creature's life was.

The above is just my gut feeling and the reasoning that comes to mind when posed with this question, but not a full analytical approach to the philosophy of not consuming animal products. The truth of consuming animal products in the real world is that it's connected to the animal agriculture industry and the associated horrors.