I agree with everything you've written except, I think, this last sentence: >Death is not the enemy of moral virtue but cruel and unusual life surely is. Are

I agree with everything you've written except, I think, this last sentence: >Death is not the enemy of moral virtue but cruel and unusual life surely is. Are you saying that it's ok to kill animals for food as long as they are not made to suffer in the process? If so, I'd argue that depriving them of subjective experience - which is what death entails - is also morally wrong.