Meat eating is part of life. Humans are omnivorous (we eat both plant matter and meat - we have the teeth and digestive track to do so). That's how it is.
Yes, we can get all our protein from other sources and perhaps this is something everyone should make more of an effort on - maybe 1-3 veggie meals per week.
Let's take beef cattle. They are bred for meat - they are NOT pets. So if everyone in the whole world went veggie, beef cattle would die out (no point in breeding them). So we would be directly responsibe for killing off animals.
So let's not make the whole world go veg*n (veggie/vegan). So, beef cattle are still being bred - We need a bull and a cow (male and female) to produce a calf so we have meat to eat. But, a bull can father lots of calves so we only need a few bulls. So what happens to the male calves? - well, some will be kept to breed from. The rest will be killed (we can not practically keep them all alive - we would be overrun with animals - sheep, pigs, cattle etc). So since we are killing the excess males, we may as well eat them. I personally think it wasteful to kill an animal and not eat/use the whole thing (If an elephant dies in the wild, the local tribes will use everything they can - sure, the poachers may take the tusks but the local people will take the tail, the eyes, the meat, the bones etc). So we eat the excess.
Dairy cattle - same principle. Unless the whole world goes vegan (again, we kill off dairy cattle), we still would need dairy cattle. Vegetarians eat dairy products so contribute to the killing - how? Well, again it comes down to the male calves. The bull mates several cows and fathers lots of calves. Only the female calves are of any use (they produce milk) - so again, the majority of the bulls need to be destroyed. So whilst we are destroying them..let's eat them.
BUT - I do think there is a lot we can still to do ensure good living conditions and humane killing. "Free range" does NOT mean "living on a grassy field 24/7. - there is a legal requirement that counts as free range. So that is an area which could be improved upon.
The labels on food will have a legal requirement (such as must rccieve 50% grain diet, or must be outside for 2 hours per day) - but there is no requiremtn for the rest (so a 50% grain diet may also have 10%ash, 10% water etc and just be "bulked up" with any old cr*p). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2508173/16-000-free-range-chickens-crammed-shed-NEVER-daylight.html - this article says "Under the EU rules for free-range production, nine hens can be crammed into every square metre of floor space.
Outside, the farmer must have at least 10,000 square metres of space for every 2,500 hens. But there are no rules to say how often the birds must visit the outside world". It also says how "free range" is "access to outside" whether or not the chickens choose to go out (or can get out past the masses)
I disagree with halal slaughter - purely because the animal is not stunned and then has its throat slit. Done incorrectly, the animal will suffer. It can take 8 seconds for an animal to die from bleeding out - and it wont have been stunned first.
I do think slaughering methods need to be looked at and made as humane as possible.
If you want to eat meat and want to be humane about it, the best thing you can do is provide for yourself. Own you own animals, rear them how you want them reared and slaughter them in the humane way you choose.
I eat meat. I enjoy meat. I personally do not see the point in fake meat. I feel if you wish to be veggie, that's fine. But do not preach to me about how good you are when you still contribute to the conditions you say you are so passionatley against.
But, there was also a recent article that plants can tell when they are being eaten. I think they "hear" (through vibrations) themselves being eaten and produce a line of foul-tasting chemicals (designed to deter the predator) - so if you think it is wrong to harm something that sense being killed/eaten etc, you shouldn't eat plants either.
So I'm mixed. Meat eating is just part of life - it always has been in the past and obviously wild animals do this ot survive. But I think there is a LOT we can improve on to make the conditions better. And yes, we could all give up a couple of meaty meals per week to help out.