Take into account that one of the basis of my theory is that animals have no rights per se.
That is where we fundamentally disagree.
They are “lucky” that cruelty towards animals is proven to make humans worse. But just farming and managing livestock for human consumption has not been proven to do that, as there’s not cruel intentions in it.
That’s not entirely true though: The Psychological Impact of Slaughterhouse Employment: A Systematic Literature Review
From my perspective it is just unnecessary harm thus cruelty because you can live perfectly fine without eating or using anything provided by animals.
A clear remedy to avoid causing harm to absolutely any other living being is stopping being alive one self.
Veganism just wants you to reduce your harm to animals as much as is practically possible. Refusing to walk is not practical, not eating meat or dairy is very practical.
What is your definition of cruelty?
From Wikipedia: “Cruelty is the intentional infliction of suffering or the inaction towards another’s suffering when a clear remedy is readily available.”
Because eating meat requires cruelty per this definition IMO.
You have to take into account that animal agriculture is responsible for the vast majority (70%) of plants that we grow and we use pesticides for them. If we stop eating animals or stop using animal products all together we need tremendously less pesticides and harm less insects in turn.