If people stopped eating animals, there would be way less factory farming. There would still be factory farming if we ate eggs and used milk, but with no consumption of meat, there would be way less factory farming. Assuming we’d need to buy meat products for feeding our pets, we’d still need to have some factory farming for that.
There would be no farming, housing or killing of cows and other animals used for leather and fur. I think of the fur industry as especially cruel, as fur is really unnecessary, and just for the egos of the consumer/customer/wearer. Also, when you learn about how cruel the factory farming industry is in the US (thanks to undercover investigations), it’s nothing compared to the same industries in East Asia and India. For proof of that, google “dog meat China” or something like that and see how cruelly they treat the dogs and cats that they capture and kill, and the cows there that they kill. There have been many instances of stores in the US mistakenly selling clothes with dog fur. When you see the dogs that are caged into cramped cages, dogs with skinny snouts with cans put over their snouts to keep their mouths shut, dogs with their legs pulled behind their backs, cages thrown from 30 feet up onto the cement ground, it will really make you sick. It will sear images into your mind that you may have trouble forgetting.
As far as PETA, I have mixed feelings about them. They do a lot of good, and I like that that the Director, Ingrid Newkirk, does not take a huge salary, unlike many other Directors and CEO’s of corporations and organizations. (you can search for that on www.charitynav.org). However, I had heard of the PETA shelters euthanizing healthy pets, and I have “liked” someone called Nathan Winograd, who is an animal rights activist and who is anti-PETA. Also, if you google “PETA shelter kill rate” or “PETA shelters kill animals” you can find tons of info and proof. Here’s just one that I found from quick google search:
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/proof-peta-kills/