Although we can't know for sure, it seems reasonable that other mammals like pigs who we are relatively closely related to are similar to us when it comes to emotions and so on. Feelings motivate us into action and I'm pretty sure those roughly same feelings are what motivates pigs, dogs, cows and other social mammals.
I like morale theory a lot, but since I first read any of it, it struck me that people don't follow them. Just about none of us follow any normative ethic or moral principles like utilitarism to the letter. The reason, I believe, is that we are not rational beings and our morale is hard coded into us and it's not very well described by current morale theories. Even though we'd like to follow any theory, most of us end up following our gut feelings and so these morale theories are mostly for guidance when moral situations become extreme, such as matters of life and death, or for providing arguments in moral discussions.
Relating it to this thread, you can tell someone why it might be wrong to eat meat from a point of view, but if that person doesn't feel wrong when eating it, he or she is not gonna change. And, if he or she does feel bad when eating meat, then it's not because of what the morale theory says.
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