(CNN) -- On Wednesday, I wrote a not-at-all controversial column on this website titled, "The argument for eating dog." The piece ran with a visual essay on CNN Photos about the illegal dog meat trade in Southeast Asia, which is just awful to look at. I argued that the dog trade should be cleaned up and made more humane -- but that the same should happen to factory farms here in the United States. The crux of the argument was this: If we think dog shouldn't be eaten -- like, ever, regardless of how clean the trade is and how quick the kill -- then maybe we should think about the other animals we eat, and if and why we don't feel the same way about them. Is it because we spend so much time with dogs -- looking into their eyes, talking to them, walking them, picking up their crap -- that we understand that they are living, breathing, feeling beings? Would we feel that way about other animals if we could hang out more?
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John Sutter responds to criticism of his column on the ethics of eating dog
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Sutter: "To be clear, I'm not saying people should eat dog"
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"I'm saying we should rethink what we eat and why"
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Social media "explodes" over a tweet about the column, as The Week put it
When I'm not writing quick columns to go with @placeholder posts, I run a project at CNN called Change the List, which tries to raise awareness about bottom-of-the-list places.