Nanie,

Thanks so much for your reply. To reiterate my point: animals can experience suffering (pain, deprivation, etc) and so minimizing suffering / animal welfare should be at the center of the discussion about food practices and ethics, IMHO.

Every creature, for the most part, will fight to survive. But this ought not be conflated with "every animal wants to live a long time." This is a specific idea with a specific meaning and all scientific research and pretty much all philosophical inquiry on the matter of consciousness brings us to the overwhelming conclusion that animals do NOT have any concept of years, or how long they have lived.

Again, suffering and the will to live is one thing, years lived is another thing entirely.

This is why I warn it is shaky ground to rest the argument there, even in part, that this is why dairy farming is unethical. We can say it's unethical for calf separation, or any other mistreatment of the animals, but not because they don't live as long.

If you're still not convinced, or my meaning remains unclear, here's a thought experiment: would it be better a cow lived eleven years, but in torturous conditions some of that time, or lived two years and was never tortured? The answer clues us into the ethics.