Muddle-headed or evil?

Is what food producers do to animals evil? Are consumers, who connive with them, also evil? Perhaps, in reality, it’s more mindless than deliberate evil-doing. When something has been done for millennia, when everybody is doing much the same thing – in this case using or eating animals - it’s not likely to be thought of as wrong.
Of course to a person who does NOT eat animals, to a vegan for instance, it looks very wrong indeed. It’s all in the perception, the belief and the convention. To those in the industry, the farmers, abattoir workers, cage manufacturers, retailers, etc., it’s a living – this is how one makes money, by the use of animals. The use of animals, as we would use any resource, is seen as utterly normal. And to consumers too, who are simply in the shop buying their normal, available food, it is such an everyday occurrence that it isn’t even thought about. Any ill effects this food might have on them, let alone the harm done to the animals, is too far problematic to think about.
It’s easy to imagine what it’s like when a vegan comes along and starts pointing out the wrong of it all. It’s mystifying. These are normal foods which are normal to everyone, as well as being perfectly legal. This food is the only type of food ever known, a meal without animal-derived items is no meal at all.
It’s the same with pharmaceuticals or medical procedures, we trust they are safe, that they’ve been animal-tested before reaching the market. As with farmers producing food for consumers so with vivisectors, who believe they’re helping to fight illness. When they’re searching for a new drug to help combat some horrible disease, conducting ‘safety experiments’ on animals isn’t thought of as evil. They probably think the opposite
We humans have grown accustomed to making use of what’s available, without questioning whether we have the right to do so. It’s not much different to the motorist using petrol - it’s available so why not use it. Animals are simply a resource and therefore available-for-use.
Gradually the human race is waking up to the consequences of this attitude. Gradually we are realising that taking what is not ours might be a mistake. Not so much evil as muddle-headed.