I've seen a cow eating the carcass of another cow before. Kind of fascinating and morbid at the same time.

Why morbid? Even cute and fluffy little critters like rabbits will happily go specifically after flowers with bugs in them if given the chance.

The circle of life is far more complicated than herbivores/carnivores and many animals will happily grab a meaty snack if opportunity arises.

Oh because it was in the middle of a drought, and it was pretty clear that the only reason that it was eating meat was due to a severe lacking of anything else to eat

Droughts are horrifying. Animals will simply do what they need to in order to stay alive.

The scary part is that droughts are getting more common.

Those are exceptions, should not change view based on that. No animal can harm humans like we do others.

There are animals that harm humans (and other animals) in much worse ways, most notably parasites.

This is such an untenable moral ground... The death we offer animals is orders of magnitude better than nature subjects them to, almost without exception.

If we could offer them a better life as well, as we once did, I would have 0 moral qualms about our meat eating.

I don't necessarily agree with the earlier poster but how we slaughter the animals isn't really the issue they have. If aliens came and promised to provide for you for your whole life but on your 30th birthday they would kill you painlessly would you take that deal? What gives us the right to impose that kind of deal on other living beings?