I think it's just a general apathy in the general population about knowing the difference. "Meat" is pig, cow, horse, rabbit, elephant or whatever, "fish" is fish meat. At a restaurant you could ask if a salad has any meat, they say no, and when it arrives, it has tiny pieces of bacon because "oh but that's almost nothing, certainly not \"meat\"".
Whaaaat! definitely not in the US haha, at last not the the major cities I guess.