I will never knowingly consume dog or cat, however, because they are "companion" species and in our society, there is a taboo around their consumption.

Are you saying that you obey taboos, always? There are taboos against eating a lot of the other animals you list--our relatively recent taboo against eating pigeons, and the ancient taboo against reptiles. I don't mean to be confrontational (I'd hate to lose another reader over this post), but we all pick and choose what taboos to obey. Why do you happen to obey this one (against eating dogs and cats)?