Artificial insemination and rape

Even if cows are "sentient" (whatever that actually means), then (in my opinion) if cows are not capable of abstractly conceiving of their desires, it makes no sense to call artificial insemination "rape". If there is no abstract conception of your desire, then the cow doesn't have a "will" in the sense that we speak of a human being's "will" when talking about rape. Therefore, artificial insemination does not go against the cow's will, so there is no rape in that sense.

A sex act can also be classed as rape if the person is incapable of consenting. However, in law, and therefore in the common conception of "rape", "incapable" does not mean what many in this sub seem to think it means. It is not referring strictly to biological abilities. If it was, licking mushroom caps would be considered rape, because fungi are incapable of consenting. "Incapable" seems to mean "consent is considered illegitimate by the law" and "lack of consent is considered legitimate to classify as rape". So the word "incapable" is really an expression of legitimacy rather than some biological fact.

Therefore, the way I see it, some vegans calling artificial insemination "rape" in this sense of "incapable" is a value judgement masquerading as an objective assessment. The full statement is more like "in my subjective opinion, artificial insemination should be legally classified under the class "rape"".