Animal Cruelty is a very subjective term in my opinion. Killing animals require that you some how puncture their skin, inflicting a mortal injury. It's going to produce blood, and when they cut open the body, blood and internal organs will come out in a rather crude fashion. For someone who never witnesses this before in their life, it may seem cruel, but such is the way of consuming animals. There is no "magical" machine that will just magically take animals and turn them into products; someone actually have to kill it first, strip it off the organs, hang it on a hook, and process it.
Of course, I'm all for animal rights. I believe companies that kill animals for food should kill their animals in such a way that it doesn't generate much pain, and on top of that, they should at least give the animal a proper living condition prior to its death (i.e. plenty of food to eat, not wondering in its own waste, etc).
However, as far as your statement:
I was once sent an email with a link to the gruesome abuse of animals at the supply chains of a well known fast-food joint. I stopped eating at the fast-food joint
I'm rather dumbfounded by the statement above.
Not eating fast food does not equal protesting the abuse animals take. Not using a product is not a "fight" against animal cruelty.
I hate it when people say, "I don't support animal abuse, so I don't eat the product."
Okay, on one hand I totally agree that if you don't support a way a product is being made, that you should stop using it. However, I disagree that not using it is a way to combat the way it is being made. For example, back in the early 90s, several shoe manufacturers were found to have made their products using low paying Chinese people who worked for less than 25 cents a day. On top of that, they used children who worked long hours and had no breaks in between. Some people decided to call a boycott of the product, which failed because sales were still high. The shoe manufacturer finally stopped when they were pressured by organizations who protested the way the product was being made.
The same must be done for products you don't believe in. You need to organize, and protest. Get off your butt, stop complaining, and just say something. Just not buying the product is not good enough. Guess what? That fast food chain probably lost less than 20 cents by you not buying their product. Big loss, I'm sure they'll manage to somehow live.
