" Leave us to our whale," as the whalers say, "and we will leave you to your McDonalds and pork chops." They have a point. If you can have your favorites treats from the factory farm, why on earth can't others have their whale meal, or others their "racks" or ivory or fur coats or macaque brains or whatever? By what moral standard may we condemn any practice?
The sole difference - that in the one case we are dealing wit wild animals, and in the other with animals bred and born just for our use - actually works to the favor of the killers. Their prey at least enjoyed some modicum of freedom. Their victims, at least, were not subjected to lives of unremitting pain and privation. And they, at least, were willing to do the job themselves. "

― Matthew Scully , Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy