For cows at least, I’m not sure where this infinite level of suffering you mention comes in. They grow on a ranch well taken care of and have all the food and medical care they could want (more than most Americans can say!). Then they are taken to a feedlot and given all the fattening grain they could ever want (if you’ve ever owned an animal you know that unlimited food is their nirvana) before being humanely slaughtered in an approved and as painless as possible way.
Something else to think of is if not for being grown for food they wouldn’t have existed at all. Is not existing better than that life they get? It’s an interesting question.
That study measured fecal cortisol (indicator for stress) upon arriving at a feedlot and after fattening and the animals seem to be within normal limits the whole time.
Something else to think of is if not for being grown for food they wouldn’t have existed at all. Is not existing better than that life they get? It’s an interesting question.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26669595/
That study measured fecal cortisol (indicator for stress) upon arriving at a feedlot and after fattening and the animals seem to be within normal limits the whole time.