Here is a theoretical libertarian test if ever there was one. And emotive as they come, too.
Calls for law change after family barbeques dog
Animal lovers in New Zealand want to make it illegal for people to eat their pets, after a Tongan family killed and barbequed their pet dog.
The Taufa family killed their pet staffordshire bull terrier Ripper and then invited friends round for a barbeque.
Lupi Taufa says it's common practice in her homeland Tonga.
"Dog, horse, we eat it in Tonga. It's good food for us," she said.
Derek Haddy works for the SPCA, New Zealand's equivalent of the RSPCA.
"I find it quite disturbing that somebody would kill a pet and then eat it. I'm not OK with that, but unfortunately the law allows you to do it," he said.
Dog lovers will be jumping up and down like a demented yorkie about this, one would imagine. But is it any different from keeping chickens and topping one every now and then for a Sunday roast? Or fattening a calf for a couple of years before selling it to an abbatoir?
If not, what is the intelligence threshold for which animals are allowed to be kept for food, and which aren't?
