You can care a lot about animal welfare and still eat meat -- witness Temple Grandin, who optimizes meat plants to minimize animal stress [1]:
"We owe it to the animals to give them decent living conditions and a painless death. People are often confused by the paradox of my work, but to my practical, scientific mind it makes sense to provide a painless death for the cattle I love. ... Often I get asked if I am a vegetarian. I eat meat, because I believe that a totally vegan diet, in which all animal products are eliminated, is unnatural." [2]
[1] http://www.grandin.com/
[2] http://www.spinninglobe.net/cowlady.htm
