The whole Animal Rights thing

What happens to billions of animals each day is enough to give the average vegan nightmares and yet to others it’s not thought about at all, it causes no sleeplessness; they enjoy their food and, if challenged, they’ll claim not to know anything about the ‘animal thing’ … or claim not to want to know. But is that evil of them? Are they just being dishonest about their feelings? Are they ethical weaklings? More likely they simply see no reason to consider issues concerning animals and animal foods. To them, animals are lesser beings and we humans are simply exercising our rights over them, enjoying the perks of being members of the dominant species. We expect to enjoy certain privileges that animals are not entitled to, namely the right to a life. For those animals we keep imprisoned because of their usefulness, there is no life as such. Every one of them is doomed to existence of the meanest kind. We have made them submit to us. And since they can be domesticated and bred and produce what we want from them, there’s no problem when they’re no longer economically viable to simply execute them. It’s all very efficient and that appeals to the practical brain of the human. If we can see a way of taking advantage of any resource, we take it. We never voluntarily refuse to take, especially from animals. If we do have to hunt them, because they can’t be domesticated, the hunting is done with the same ruthless efficiency with which we farm them. If their main value is in producing useful by-products, like eggs or milk, their day of execution is determined by their rate of production. When it drops they get the chop.
With our knowledge of biology we understand how a body will produce instinctively, mating, reproducing, secreting, fattening, responding in a productive way despite tormenting psychological or physical conditions. Humans know that animals will endure life-long imprisonment, let humans manipulate their breeding cycle, eat and get fat, and then go passively to their execution, at our convenience. They have nothing to fight back with so they are in our power and we can do with them as we please.
Humans are only interested in animals for what they can get out of them, mainly food and clothing. Nothing else matters. The care they’re given is more to do with humans looking after a piece of valuable property than concern for their welfare. Their right to a life or the conditions under which they live are of no interest, since economic factors govern everything. Competition for ever-cheaper product forces the farmer to minimise welfare standards to maximise outcome.
The consumer cheers from the sidelines, and would surely agree that they are hand in glove with the producers of animal foods. We expect constant supply at the shop, just as we might expect water when we turn on the tap. This is a matter of basic survival, so nothing must endanger supply, especially not our own conscience. For this reason vegans are seen to be the thin end of the wedge and it’s why we are, at present, so unpopular.