You may be mixing apples and oranges... The degree of ‘compassion’ one has toward an animal is not directly correlated to one’s opinions as to its intelligence

You may be mixing apples and oranges... The degree of ‘compassion’ one has toward an animal is not directly correlated to one’s opinions as to its intelligence. My uncle raised pigs. A frequent topic of conversation was how smart they are. Without question, they’re smarter than dogs. (I had a pet pig growing up.) Yet, we ate then. An even more brutal example: slavery. It was obvious and undeniable that human slaves were intelligent; yet, that didn’t mean that compassion towards them was common.