remember: you don't have to be vegan to worry about animal welfare
However, it does help if you want to minimise your personal contribution towards animal suffering.
The history of food labels is really interesting and sad. It's a classic example of regulatory capture. Even the term "organic" doesn't come close to what many people think it does. The best most of us can do is find a local farmer or coop you trust, ideally one that practices permaculture, that sells to the public. Unfortunately, that can be a challenge to find and can be prohibitive for those with lower incomes or lack of transportation.
utterly ineffective at actually meaningfully changing the mass cruelty of the meat industry.
There should be no "meat industry" at all you despicable fucking ghoul
"fundamentally not so bad" ? you morally bankrupt imbecile, go watch Dominion
Stop murdering and eating sentient beings
PETA “shelters” have a higher kill (euthanasia) rate than any other organization.
Close to a million cows are murdered daily (not to mention pigs, ducks, etc.) - almost universally after a life of torture or soon after birth - but yeah, sure, shelters kill more, makes total sense
Since you obviously feel guilty (consciously or not) but do not seem to have the basic morality to stop profiting from the mass torture and killing of sentient beings for your personal pleasure, at least have the decency to keep quiet about it instead of trying to jump through logical hoops justifying yourself
Stop murdering and eating sentient beings
do you actually mean sentient or do you mean sapient and if the latter... i'm tired and mad at SF writers
"Animal cruelty is fundamentally not so bad, and we shouldn't shut down animal abuse farms because someone else would abuse the animals anyway"
Literally the same argument as "we shouldn't pollute less cuz India and China"
The incoherent ramblings of the ill informed.
I think most of the people you're yelling at don't actually eat animals. It's not "don't do it in front of me", it's "don't do it".
How is it virtue signalling? That's when someone brags verbally about their position or perspective based on social expectations.
Based on your use of the word "destructive" I assume you're talking about radical animal activists like the ones who sabotage industrial meat factories, often secretly and anonymously for their own safety.
So, do you really think these really are people who are ineffectual and desiring social reaffirmation of their views? If anything, this group of individuals are exactly those I would call to mind as ones who are not afraid to make actual change in the world they want to see, whatever it takes. Forget if you agree with them or not. It seems absurd to call them ineffective virtue-signallers.
who are not afraid to make actual change in the world they want to see, whatever it takes
Your concern is for the meat treat distributors and their means of cruelty production, because of course it is, you treatbrained ghoul.
If you actually care about animals dying in kill shelters the solutions are to open more shelters, do more to stop abusive conditions for animals before they get out of hand, and most importantly stop breeding animals. Animals are killed either because shelters don't want to take them in do to their condition or they are too full. You can blame the no kill shelters as well, because they don't take in every animal. But they aren't really to blame either, people who support the industries that breed pets are.
