Discussions done under the topic of Abortion has temporarily led to the topic of killing of calves, in comparison with killing of fetuses. And this topic deserves another thread.
I think I can just copy what I said in that Abortion thread to express my views. (modified version)
I'm very moral relativism, or very very moral relativism. I believe even killing is just a compromise, a result mainly due to power comparison(chicken has 0, human 1, so human wins) and random factors(they are collectively very influential to the final outcome, like the zeitgeist, or the weather that day). Now follows the case analysis.
I know how the meat industrial is supporting the contemporary unsustainable way of meat eating of humans(check out some animal rights website and you'll see), and the only rational pity I feel for the chicken I ate today is that it is too powerless compared to humans. Eat or be eaten. That's what I usually muse over when I have meals, the Darwinistic morality as displayed by the meat I eat. Whether they are capable of suffering is objectively and rationally irrelevant, unless they are powerful and capable of significant retaliation action.(which is one reason why cannibalism is unworthy and rarely practiced)
Yeh, I'm in very much agreement with political realism, if you know that stuff.
P.S.: I used the word "objectively", because I LOVE lions, and I know they are doomed in front of humans' invasion, therefore unworthy of protection objectively. but I want to protect them anyway, which is a completely subjective and has nothing to do with rationality, it's just my personal weirdness. So in the same way, even if you believe in this kind of moral relativism, you can still subjectively oppose the meat industrial. My caveat is, when you do, the struggle goes into a higher level, it becomes the struggle between two kinds of humans, which depends not on the power of the eaten animals but the power of the animal rightists.
Of course, we can also discuss animal rights in medical research, entertainment(circus, zoo, bullfighting, horse riding(not the joyous kind of JaquiChan, but commercial ones where horses got shot after they got hurt), dog fighting etc).