How do we value different animals' lives?

Question

Food consumption: we eat chickens, steer, fish, etc. but we do not eat dogs, cats, horses, etc. is this because we have a "relationship" with the animals that is nonexistent with the chickens and fish?

Experimentation: we perform experiments on rats/mice, fruit flies, and bacteria, but we do not on dogs, cats, horses, etc. why is this?

for some animals i understand that their numbers are limited and should be treated as such (to prevent extinction) however, why do we value some animals' lives more than others? and by what standard do we base this off of?

is it abundance of that species or a lack of a relationship with that species? or something totally different? why do we as humans do this?

Answer 1

We do eat dogs, cats, horses, etc. Many Asian countries think rat, dog, cat, and snakes are delicacies.
I have eaten horse meat while in the military. Goat, sheep, deer, monkeys, bear are all sources of food. It just depends on the culture you are familiar with.

Answer 2

It's our culture that dictates which animals are acceptable or unacceptable for food. If we have a pet dog, we don't want to look down at our dinner and be reminded of Spot. If you look around the world though some cultures have no problem eating Spot and Fluffy because they don't keep those animals as pets.

Answer 3

FYI: they actually do test on dogs, cats, horses and rabbits, sadly. I am a vegetarian, because I believe it is wrong to eat animals. I just looked at your username, proudtexan, so I am guessing you are a meat eater! Humans are just hypocrites by nature I suppose.

Answer 4

It all started back in the stone age when it was eat or be eaten.

Coach