Capitalism harms animals most of all. I used to work in pet shops (never again) and the way these people treat them for the promise of money is soup crushing.

Yea … I tried to touch on this in the “vegan cat food debate” that happened on lemmy-world in response to all the “animal and pet cruelty” vitriol.

Apart from ignoring the nuance of the conversation vegans were having, the presumption that the pet industry and all those who have pets are animal lovers and vegans were somehow in contravention of an otherwise pristine endeavour … was problematically naive and ignorant of how much casual pet owners can in fact buttress an industry and practice with plenty of cruelty baked in.

As a result of the settlement, those charges now will not be pursued.

"Our experienced legal representation told us if we wanted to continue with the court process, it would be unlikely the facility would be closed, and that's ultimately what we wanted," Ms Dawkins said.

I hate that no one is even being punished.

I use this analogy where I say that both companion animals and animals exploited for other purposes, such as food, experience speciesism, but they experience it differently. The difference is akin to the difference between racial fetishization and aggressive racist attacks. Both are forms of racism, but one comes off as a "kinder" and more "benevolent" form of racism than the other.

Dogs and cats are still victims of human supremacy on a daily basis, to a point where they're treated as commodities and toys for humans to play with rather than truly being respected as the beings they are, independent of how they can serve human interests.