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H. B. Acton (1908-1974) on Animal Rights

Animal Ethics

This is the question whether the wrongness of cruelty to animals depends in part upon the animals' suffering, or whether it does not depend upon that at all, but only upon the bad effects upon human beings of cruelty to animals, and upon the badness of the human states of mind that such cruelty involves.

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Prima Facie vs. Ultima Facie Wrongness

Animal Ethics

So, even if it were permissible to eat the flesh of humanely raised animals who were painlessly killed (as we have been assuming ), the permissibility of eating such animals does not entail the permissibility of eating inhumanely raised animals. That's one more reason to forego the Christmas Turkey or Ham this year.