I had a discussion with someone who feels strongly about this recently, and he pointed out that even the few chickens and cows that get decent treatment during

I had a discussion with someone who feels strongly about this recently, and he pointed out that even the few chickens and cows that get decent treatment during their lives are brought to the slaughter house when they're not productive anymore (except for a negligible minority of cases). Even if we assume the best slaughtering conditions (wrongly, most likely) it's not hard to see how that can be perceived as unethical. He did mention that people who take good care of their chickens and cows during their whole life are a different story.