Traditions (old habits + time passed) and rationalizing make people comfortable with eating most animals.

Then, it's easy to grow a conscience when confronted to trendy newish things like so-called sentient animals we never really ate before.

This is a good thing. Growing the masse's consciousness through new fads and phenomenons is a great way to create cognitive dissonance that contribute to changing old habits. Even if one will always encounter resistance to change.