You do realize that these animals are GOING TO DIE regardless, right?

Yes, the question is would you prefer to die a premature life or to die an old life of natural causes?

Also, most of them would have never existed otherwise.

It is true that farmed animals of carefully selected breeds are a human creation. This selection was never made with the well-being of the animals in mind but purely based on how much flesh they produce and how quickly they can grow so they live the shortest lives for the largest profit. In fact some breeds have developed severe health of problems due to this type of horrible selection.

Are you saying that farmed animals should be thankful to their owners for having granted them a short (even if in some rare cases kind) existence followed by dead? That's quite a twisted, even sadistic, view to have, to do as we please with other beings and then claim it's for their own good.

Scenario 1 vs Scenario 2

For the record I never advocated for the release of farmed animals into the wild. This would be irresponsible after the thousands of years of species subjugation/domestication. A compassionate management of farmed animals would have to be thought out, perhaps in the shape of animal sanctuaries, I don't know. However, I don't think this will ever be an actual problem since it is unlikely that the whole world will become vegan overnight, leaving us not knowing what to do with billions of caged animals.

I think it's a bit disingenuous to come up with a real life example and compare it with a highly hypothetical and unlikely graphic fox example just to support your views. I appreciate that you make an effort to buy meat from supposedly more ethical sources, however most of the animals don't have that luck. There's way higher likelihood that an animal is born in a factory farm, Scenario 3: chick is born in factory egg farm. If male, he gets minced immediately since he can't produce eggs; if female gets her beak painfully cut in half to prevent fighting due to crowded conditions and natural instinct of territorial disputes, lives half a life in a dark, cruelly small cage where she can barely move, before getting slaughtered. Depressingly similar stories exist for other farmed species. This is the reality of the largest majority of farmed animals today.

Why not take the alternative compassion driven Scenario 4: Animal gets born in natural environment, animal gets to live freely with minimal human interference, animal dies of natural causes. Isn't this what you expect for yourself? Why do you have double standards for other species?