We made an unspoken promise to the animals we domesticated: If you provide for me and my family, I will ensure your line never fades from this world
It is unethical to abandon that promise, and the extinction of a species may be the single greatest wrong mankind can commit.
Dozens of species go extinct every single day, in large parts due to deforestation for animal agriculture. Acting like keeping a handful of species we eat from extinction is somehow noble is silly by contrast. The concept of a species is a human construct in the first place, individual animals don't care that their species (which isn't even natural, we bred them like this) is kept going.
If you compare the health of wild animals to domestically cared for animals, you will obviously see that domesticated animals are healthier and have greater opportunities for enrichment and happiness under human care.
It's not about if those animals live under animal agriculture or in the wild. The animals in the wild already exist, the ones in captivity wouldn't exist at all, if we didn't breed them.
Yes there are vile humans who torture and keep animals in miserable conditions, and they should pay consequences for their cruelties and greed
Don’t you dare paint every farmer with that same corporate battery farm brush.
Most animal meat nowadays comes from factory farms. Worldwide it is roughly 90%, in the US it is 99%.
It really wouldn't. If a corporation reduced their production of for example red meat, another one would simply scale up their production, because the demand of the market would remain unchanged.
Also, there's already more than just a "small percentage" of people who have dropped red meat from their diet. All vegetarians, vegans, pescetarians, and people who eat meat but stopped eating red meat due to the environmental impact add up to several percentage points, which is absolutely measureable and impactful.