It's interesting how pets can shape our ethics. For me, it was quite literal - Rupert was sitting on my knee when I watched those first videos about factory farming.
Looking into a dog's eyes, you can see they're conscious beings who feel fear, love, pain. In that moment, I couldn't deny the connection between the animals on my plate and the one on my lap.
One was just unlucky enough to be born into the food system.
Over the years, I've had two King Charles Spaniels - Lilly, who we lost to mitral valve disease two years ago, and Rupert, who passed just recently. Both brought that same ethical question into sharp focus every time I bought their food.
Because here's the contradiction - I'm a vegan who regularly bought meat products for my dogs. There's no getting around that cognitive dissonance. They needed meat to thrive, regardless of my ethical stance.
That's why the recent UK approval of cultivated meat for pet food feels so significant. It's not just about feeding our pets - it's about resolving these ethical contradictions.
Sometimes the biggest ethical breakthroughs start with the smallest members of our families.
