It’s hard to turn something into food when you’ve given it a name.
Not to change the subject to a large degree, but this could explain why we as humans always ask at the first opportunity what a newborn child's name is.
Also never name your kid "Candy" or "Cupcake", (and clearly, when you do call them that it isn't an endearment but more of a warning.)
Just sayin'.
The shoats are named "Ham", "Bacon" and "Sausage". :)
But yeah we never name something that is going to become food. Technically we should not even be naming the cows but I refused to call Evangeline the Cow "Hamburger" or something like that.
And who knows, we just might keep her until she decides to go to cow heaven on her own. Could happen. We have the space.
I remember wayyyyyy back in the 80s Amy Grant was a guest on with Johnny Carson. She was talking about how her fiance had given her a piglet for her birthday or something. Carson asked her if the piglet dealt with holiday depression. She said, “Oh, she’s real despondent now. We’re eating her.”
After all the response died down she said, “After they reach 300 lbs they lose that ‘cute’ edge.