This past summer, participants in the annual Yulin dog festival in China captured thousands of dogs to kill and eat. The festival sparked outrage worldwide because many were horrified that people would kill and eat dogs, but I found something else about this whole situation bewildering. The main reason so many were enraged by this festival was because the animal on the chopping block was a dog. No one seemed to notice the hypocrisy in calling others horrible for eating a dog while they enjoyed a hamburger at home. I have never been able to understand why certain societal values are assigned to some animals that are deemed “pets,” but completely different values are assigned to animals deemed “food.” In Illinois, you can go to jail for up to five years for abusing and killing a dog, but the penalty for killing a pig? What penalty? Cook it and call it bacon.