We eat animals that are sacred in other countries - it's all about different beliefs and cultures, and if you go abroad, you go to experience that culture.
Organic farming is itself a potential welfare issue. I personally choose to avoid organic animal produce. If a cow that is providing me with milk becomes unwell, I want it to be treated with medication. Organic farming has a whole load of rules about the use of medications in animals and how long it has to be until that animal can be used for produce etc. (as does non-organic farming, but the organic rules are more numerous and "strict") and they're often killed, as they're just costing money to feed/house etc. while they're not contributing to an income during this period.
Also, in terms of dairy cows, yes, they have to be milked, but the reason they have to be milked is because they have repeated pregnancies. If they were left to their own devices, once their calf had been weaned, their milk would dry up, as it does with humans. Instead, dairy cows are milked and milked (encouraging continued milk production, although it does reduce) and each year they are mated again, to boost that milk production again, and of course producing more offspring to add to the cycle.
What I think leaves a bad taste in the mouth, is threads like this, about eating guinea pigs, on a guinea pig loving forum
I'm off to play with the pet oinky pigs. Pork can be a pet too
>>> and sadly you will often find that free range hens live as horrible a life as battery farmed. 
