Having just finished reading Dominion by Matthew Scully I felt compeled to share a quote that helped sum up the book's emotion. Dominion discusses the relationship that human beings have take up ruling over all animals and how this is a misuse of power in almost all cases. 

When talking about laws being proposed to prevent cruelty to animals he says, 

" Under explicit cruelty statutes, and not just industrial regulations, it would carry specific provisions as to the space afforded to each animal, following no more complicated a principle than that pigs and cows should be able to walk and turn around, fowl to move about and spread their wings, and all creatures on our farms to know the feel of the soil and grass and the warmth of the sun. No more mass confinement. No more veal crates. No more gestation [birthing] crates. No more battery cages. If we cannot do something humanely, without degrading both animals and ourselves, then we should not do it at all."