In just an hour, the New Year’s Day AKC Dog Show will air on Animal Planet.

You know, many vegans fault people for consuming some animals even though these same people love their dogs.

If you love your dog, the vegan asks, why do you eat a pig?

But that question has its own problem. It generally presumes dogs are well off in their lofty, loved perch in society. And that presumption is unfair. 

Dogs have long been considered offshoots of agricultural production by breeders, and by the agencies that have arisen to regulate them. Let me explain.