The ethics if factory farming

[The Grand Nudger]

In the former, there's a net loss in the quality of the species. In the latter, there's a net gain-- the suffering of the individuals is compensated by the advantage to the survival of the species overall.

As our livestock operations -are- their environment (and more broadly an earth dominated in many ways by our species is the overall environment for -all- forms of life), anything that makes the population more amenable to food production and domesticity - is an "improvement" in that species (if we simply insist upon using such terms). Being "strong", "fast, or "intelligent" confers no advantage. Therefore, predation by wolves or cougars could not be said to improve their "quality". Their suffering, in the livestock model,confers survival advantages - and those advantages seem to be overwhelming, for example, there are no Aurochs left.

Domesticated cattle outplayed them in the game of life. As dogs outplayed wolves, and cats outplayed....well...other stronger, faster cats.
(it helps to remember that we are just as much an agent of natural selection as any other predator, and possibly much more so, as we are also capable of vastly altering the environment in which -all- must play the game)