Which would you prefer? A thousand people living freely or a hundred thousand people living in cages too small to stand up in?

Get outta here with pretending that big number = better. Those animals are raised in horrifying conditions explictly to be slaughtered. They wouldn't exist in the first place except for the cruelty and greed of the meat industry. We routinely acknowledge that there are 'fates worse than death' for people, but when it comes to animals people seem to forget that. With the ending of the meat industry, fewer animals would exist, but they would be much better cared for.