it doesn't get any dumber than a dead animal

A friend in America believes it to be senseless cruelty to kill and eat an innocent creature like a dog. His argument is an emotional one. He thinks eating dog meat is cruel, yet he is the same guy who will order and enjoy Veal Parmesan at a restaurant. Veal is baby cow. How could you defend a full grown dog and not a baby cow?

Maybe that guy would agree with another friend of mine, who considered the intellectual capacity of the animal in determining whether or not to slaughter and eat them. Since my argument about vegetarianism is an economic one, it’s not necessary to consider whether the animal can be trained to sit, shake, or play dead, for example. The farmed animal–any animal–diverts food, land, water, and non-renewable resource away from their more efficient uses. To me, farming dogs is as sensible as farming cows or snakes or pigs or rats. They’re all animals and all edible. It’s equally barbaric and backwards to me.
The dumb animal is not the slaughtered animal.