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I thought this showed up as one of the example questions during the proposal phase, but can't recall the outcome (if there was one): is meat from animals Americans keep as pets considered "food" for the purposes of this site, assuming it's commonly consumed somewhere?

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    Context and sensible judgment, IMO. If the poster is obviously trying to troll, it gets closed. If it's legitimate (as best as can be determined), then people familiar with the preparation of X should provide helpful info.
    – JYelton
    Jul 11, 2010 at 21:06
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    "is meat from animals Americans keep as pets considered food" - Why should we get special treatment?
    – hobodave
    Jul 22, 2010 at 20:44

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Meat is meat and the only thing that you have to worry about is if you can stomach eating and gnawing on the meat and juices from something that you gave a name to.

Isn't this why kids are taught to not get too chummy with the sheep and pigs on the farm?

Cows are sacred in India and pigs aren't eaten by certain religions; yet they're grilling them and dry rubbing them all over the world with apple sauce and side dishes.

But really, it should be about the type of question that the house-trained meat platter is wrapped in.

If it's off-topic or not a real question then it's not on the plate.

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    except, of course, for Soylent Green. youtube.com/watch?v=8Sp-VFBbjpE
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jul 10, 2010 at 22:44
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    Soylent Green is people. And people don't really care for eating people. Who knows why? They're delicious. meta.cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/3/… @jef
    – Eight Days of Malaise
    Jul 11, 2010 at 3:19
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    My spouse worked a family farm for a few years. All of the animals that were raised for butchering got names like "dinner", "hamburger", etc. so the kids could maintain the connection that these weren't pets -- rather, they were being raised and kept healthy for the purpose of later becoming food. Only the woolly and labor farm animals got "typical" names.
    – Dinah
    Jul 12, 2010 at 15:42
  • Great idea, I named a lamb 'chops' just a few months ago.
    – BaffledCook
    Jun 20, 2011 at 15:56
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As with most things I'm sure a lot of the thought behind it will follow intent. Is the author trying to evoke a reaction out of people or simply asking an honest question or providing a correct answer? There shouldn't be an issue with an honest discussion but we probably don't want to encourage obvious cases of people attempting to troll the community.

That level of subjectivity in determining intent could be a pain.

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I agree with random. In certain cultures preparing Fido as the main course, is right up there with snake and chickens. I appreciate it may affect some peoples sensibilities but it's the nature of food.

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I also agree. I prepared horse once and it turned out wrong (my fault) but I did buy the meat at the butcher. Where I live someone talks about dog-puppies, and others talk about lizards as food...

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