Factory Farming Quote

I read a haunting but powerful factory farming quote last night, in Mathew Scully's book Dominion.  I have been ultra busy with work, so I haven't finished reading it in ... a bit too long; however, I have to say that I am constantly impressed with Scully's style and insight.  This is one of the best vegan books that I have read, and I have read my share!  Anyway here is the vegan quote:

"Now, one might say, there is no more element of of surprise [in being sent to slaughter] because there is no more kindness.  The treacheries begin on the day they are born.  From the start they must feel they are in the hands of an enemy.  No creature of the factory farm goes to its death feeling betrayed by friends." p. 286.

How could an animal possibly feel betrayed when it has known almost nothing besides misery? This is a powerful quote.  One doesn't have to read fifty books on veganism or factory farming to get the point.  The world of Earthlings is just the way that things are.  Can you believe that there are people who try to write it off?  That blows me away.  Even the acts of individuals in that film are systemic.  The devaluation occurs in a mindset, not solely within an individual.  Despite how often I return to logic in my posts and on my pages, I understand that there is a basic compassion missing from the lives of most people in the developed world and the industries they support (or patronize). 

How can someone who supports factory farming be a good person?

How can any of us be good?

I lived in New Zealand for a year, and there were people who actually believed that factory farming does not exist there.  That is simply factually inaccurate (that is to say it is documented); just to give an anecdote as well: one could tell by the smell left on one's face by those chicken trucks that drive by every day, headed to slaughter, that they lived in their own excrement. The biggest problem with their delusion, however is that they point to factory farming and say that is not how we do it here.  All of a sudden they think that serves as a justification for doing what they want with an animal.  It's hilarious logic, if one can even call it that.