Dog lovers around the world rejoiced last week as South Korea passed a bill that outlaws the production and sale of dog meat. Undoubtedly, this is a historic win for dogs, who are intensively farmed in cages with little food and water before being electrocuted to death, skinned, and butchered. However, this news should also make us reflect upon whose flesh is on our own plates and what it took to get them there.

If you’ve found yourself giving this wonderful news coming out of Seoul a happy upvote online, don’t you think the equally sensitive pigs, cows, chickens, and sheep deserve the same consideration? Anything less amounts to prejudice or discrimination based on species, and that is called speciesism. Like racism and sexism, speciesism considers “different from” to mean “less than”. Like all prejudices, speciesism doesn’t stand up to scrutiny and is revealed as illogical in the face of critical analysis.

In all the ways that matter, all animals - including those farmed for their flesh - are like dogs and indeed humans. They are all sentient beings with thoughts and feelings, who want to live in peace. Pigs play and can learn to fetch a frisbee, lambs wag their tails when they’re happy, and chickens make friends. Even fish, who humans relate to least of all due to their silence and unfamiliar features, learn quickly and enjoy environmental stimulation.

Imagine - if you can bear to - a dog in a slaughterhouse. The gentle animal shakes in fear, and her nose twitches as her delicate nostrils fill with the scent of the blood spilling from fellow dogs’ throats. She is shoved forward and crushed in a line of other terrified animals, trapped with no means of escape. Her turn arrives, and she whimpers as a bolt is fired into her delicate brain. Her limp body is hoisted by a shackle attached to her hind legs, and finally, her throat is slashed.

Now revisit that same journey but substitute the word “dog” for “cow”, because this is how cows killed for beef live out their final moments. Cruelty to animals isn’t something that just happens in other countries. It’s right there at the end of our forks, happening to individuals just as deserving of a life free from suffering as those we consider beloved family members. If this reality doesn’t sit well, I implore you to embrace a vegan lifestyle, an incredibly liberating way to live in accordance with your values of kindness and equality.

Nowadays, you’re sure to find a plant-based option (or, more likely, an entire menu) at almost every pub, restaurant, and fast-food outlet in the country. From vegan fried chicken and thick marbled “steaks” to fluffy croissants and creamy dairy-free cheeses, supermarkets now offer an abundance of vegan food. You don’t have to wait for the wheels of government to turn, prohibiting the sale of dogs’ or any other living, feeling beings’ flesh, before you make a positive difference for animals; you can start at your very next meal.

Mimi Bekhechi is Vice President PETA UK, Europe and Australia at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).