[Sydney Morning Herald - opinion]

Something has gone badly wrong in relations between human beings and
other animals, and it is not just animal welfare and animal rights
organisations that say so. Large swathes of the public are troubled
too.

Even people who take their lead from Genesis, from its assurance that
God has granted us dominion over the beasts in order to feed
ourselves, suffer nagging doubts whether factory farming and a food
industry operating on an industrial scale to turn living animals into
what are euphemistically called ''animal products'', are quite what
God had in mind.
...
Factory farming is a new phenomenon, very new indeed in the history of
animal husbandry. The good news is that, after decades of untrammelled
expansion, the industry has been forced on to the defensive. The
activities of organisations such as Voiceless have shifted the onus on
to the industry to justify its practices; and because its practices
are indefensible and unjustifiable except on narrow economic grounds,
the industry is battening down its hatches and hoping the storm will
blow itself out. Thus, in so far as there was a public relations war,
the industry has already lost the war.

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full story:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/nothing-biblical-in-factory-farming-20111204-1od9i.html