What do we "owe" the animals we use for food and clothing?

There is only one true difference between humans and animals- intelligence. But the one difference doesn't justify placing more value on one life than another. While animals make a lot of choices based on instinct, they do make choices, and a significant number of them come from their free will as much as their instincts. Both animals in the wild and animals that have been domesticated are entitled to their lives. Intelligence aside, all animals are born into the world and have the opportunity to live it, and do what they want to do with their lives. We don't have the right to take that opportunity away from them because they were given a chance to live and explore the world just like humans. Would anyone want to die if they were an animal living in the wild rather than a human living in a city? No. You wouldn't want to die just because you're less intelligent or wouldn't live a long life.

An issue with this is that people often think animals live difficult lives and we're doing them a favor by killing them. Interesting fact is that children in Africa enjoy living more than most people in the rest of the world do. They've never known another life, so they don't see their own as all that bad. It's the same exact case with animals. They have no reason to feel like their lives are hard because they've never known a life of luxury.

The above does bring up another issue, however, which is that we may spoil animals that we use for produce and other resources and degenerate them and their offspring. If you take in a stray kitten and raise it in your home, then try to release it once it reaches adulthood, it wouldn't survive very long. It's grown accustomed to not needing to worry about survival because it's being given everything it needed for too long. Given that survival is such a strongly rooted instinct in animals, and the fact that much of their design is intended for survival, I feel it's wrong to treat animals that are being farmed rather than slaughtered like a household pet. Think of it as you would a man who has worked a job for so long, and has adapted to it so well, that once he finally retires, he feels a loss of purpose and value. If you take the challenge of survival in the wild away from an animal, you're taking away something it's very well used to, and you may be causing it stress from creating that loss.

As for animals who are going to the slaughter house, yes, they should be treated better. Even predators will usually try to kill their prey quickly and painlessly, proving that wild animals themselves do understand and respect the preciousness and value of life.

People need to stop acting like animals' lives are less valuable than ours because we're more intelligent- the degree of intelligence does not dictate how much the animal themselves desires to live and survive.

Us. Maybe they should use us for food and clothing, it's only fair. And personally I think we should treat them as humanely as possible, they're breathing living things too. They feel pain the same as me and you.

I feel like we should treat them humanely by not slaughtering them for meat and material at all.