I think eating them is all in our heads. My hubby is the same way. "I can't kill them because they are pets". I was raised in the country. We didn't have a whole farm or anything, but every summer we raised pigs. And a cow here and there. They were pets to my sister and I but we also knew what their purpose was and that at the end of the summer they would go to the butcher. But we gave them a good loved life.
