My other response to you was so long-winded, and there was even more that I wrote that maybe wasn’t directly relevant to your comment, so I removed it. I did write it, though, so I figure I’ll just go ahead and paste it here:
I’m actually not even philosophically strictly vegan, although I am vegan in practice. I just weigh the cost/benefit when making decisions. I decide if the questionable nutritional benefit of drugged up animal parts and 20 minutes of pleasure to me is worth a lifetime of cruel conditions and misery for this animal. It just happens to be the case for me personally that I think whatever potential health benefit I get from it isn’t worth such an extreme cost to the animal since I am fortunate enough to be able mantain a healthy body without that. I would feel much better if I could verify that the animal has had a happy life.
For instance, in scotland, there are sheep that are free to roam the unfenced highlands anywhere they like with their babies, and they choose to go back to where the farmer they are used to feeds them in the winters. When they get old, the farmer will quickly kill them, and this is very much in line with their life over countless generations. Philosophically, eating that kind of meat has a much lower cost to me than the cruel factory farms where much meat/animal products come from. That said, at this point in my life, even that cost is not worth it to me, but maybe some day that will change. I can see the argument that maybe killing them at a certain point could be seen as mercy, but still, I’d just rather not at this point in my life.