I agree with everything that you said about us eating other living things. Personally, I don't think our food needs to, or should for that matter suffer. When I practiced law, our firm represented a large poultry supplier in Arkansas. They were being sued by a former employee and I had to fly down for a deposition. I was given a tour of the facility. It was a state of the art enterprise. The cages were cleaned and disinfected multiple times each day, so the place smelled like a hospital, more than anything else. It was kind of nauseating. A device held open the beak of the chickens for most of the day, and they were forced fed vitamins, water, antibiotics and lots and lots of feed. The production goal of this "factory" was "hatched to fryer in 26 days". So when people were cooking the chicken they just bought at the store, it was on average only 26 days old. The whole thing swore me off poultry for about 6 months. But I got over it. I do try to eat now only organically raised products, and free range chicken and turkey as much as I can. Studies have shown that meat that is stress free is better for our consumption, but more importantly, I know that animals feel pain. There is no reason to be cruel to an animal, even if it's going to be our food.