Are there things that would be considered cruel to do to a dog, but not a pig? I suspect most people in western cultures would say "slaughter". That might not be the most well thought out position (though it is not a position I hold, so it may be unfair for me to say that), but I suspect it is a common position nevertheless.

Anyway, as I said in another comment, my take on it is that we are all performing the same mental calculus (Americans, Vietnamese, French; Vegan Americans, Omnivore French, ... Everyone.) but we are going into the calculation with different values. Some Asian cultures have the "willingness to eat it" cranked way up so that they are more willing to eat animals that could be considered cute (sparrows, dogs, etc), while at the same time other Asian cultures have "willingness to eat it" cranked way down. The calculation is the same, only the values and weights assigned to things differ.

If you started to dial down the "willingness to eat it" I suspect that "creepy things" (snakes, bugs) might be the first to be spared, followed closely by whatever things that culture finds cute. Maybe the other way around.

I suspect the Vietnamese treatment of dogs is an outlier, which doesn't invalidate the general rule. People think dogs are their friends, that they have stronger and more pronounced feelings and emotions than pigs (which may or may not be true - most people, including me, have never had pigs as pets). The same can be observed with cows in India - I suspect hurting a dog would be less of a crime than hurting a cow there.

Anyways, I wasn't talking about eating animals - I was talking about being cruel to animals. That's where the perceived consciousness plays a role - you don't want to hurt something that you see as more or less similar to you and capable of the same thoughts and emotions like you.

P.S. The fact that I'm talking like these are all facts and statistically proven theories is just for style. In reality I'm talking out of my a$$.