[LeifCarrotson]

There's a distinction, sure, but it's not infinite.

Would you shrug your shoulders and say "they're not humans" when confronted with an animal abuser torturing intelligent family pets? I hope not. The intelligence of some non-humans, like great apes, is pretty incontrovertible. People are familiar with the social and emotional capabilities of dogs, but pigs and cows are surprisingly similar.

On the other hand, would I get up on arms if you squished a mosquito, or if a starving person ate a fish? If you ate a tomato? Of course not, that's ridiculous.

Somewhere on that spectrum is a point where we can evaluate the morality and the utility of killing male chickens to make egg farming more profitable.

It's critical to allow society to understand that part of the system that produces eggs in sterile styrofoam packages for 99 cents is a shredder that turns chicks into cow feed. People who do not understand the food industry cannot make informed choices about what to consume, and people supplying that demand cannot be expected to universally buck incentives.