God of love, compassion and merciful doesn't allow the sacrifice and consumption of the most vulnerable member of our society

Tony,
I see the circumstances we live in today and I see that we easily can live a lifestyle that doesn't harm any creature - neither dog, cat, cow, horse, rabbit, sheep, and more.
Man has certainly brought in lots of death to this world - so why continue with this destructive behavior; when there is a wonderful lifestyle of love and compassion to all sentient beings?
So why would we then choose to make dietary choices and choices of clothing that harm and kill (the ultimate harm and abuse) other sentient, feeling and precious beings?

I believe in a merciful God, but I don't find it congruent with a merciful God to allow the sacrifice and consumption of the most vulnerable member of our society - the individual sentient and feeling animal
I was a fundamentalist in terms of my beliefs of the Bible for 11 years, but now I understand it is a work by humans and highly reflected by the culture the authors lived in and what they deemed to be a morally correct lifestyle.
[As for Bible-research, I found this helpful: http://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145 ]