This is largely why we don’t eat meat, either. I’m shoving a stick into a hornet’s nest here, but I wonder if Catholics wouldn’t be better off fulfilling their moral obligation to the planet either by going vegetarian or by hunting, fishing, and/or supporting only local and ethically sourced meat.
As a veterinarian involved in animal welfare, I’ve been interested in the subject of the Catholic theology of animal welfare for 20+ years. There are only 4 paragraphs in the Catechism that address animal welfare, and they do not make any specifications beyond that we “owe animals kindness.”
There are a number of issues involved with eating meat and consuming eggs that goes beyond husbandry and slaughter practices, not the least of which is whether we formally or materially cooperate with immoral husbandry and slaughter practices (where they exist…not all such practices are immoral), as well as the the remoteness of material cooperation (not all material cooperation is immoral).
Although I do not agree with the entirety of his paper, theologian John Berkman does an excellent job of discussing this subject.
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