[will_pseudonym]

there's actually an interesting argument that i first heard Diane Fleischman pose -- that chicken is worse than beef on a calorie/animal measure and so would harm more animals because it takes more chickens to feed x people than it does cows, and so more animals suffer for the same amount of food produced.

[andi999]

But then you can argue that mammal suffering is exponentially worse than bird suffering, or fish.

[bayesian_horse]

I don't think you can make the argument that a cow is exponentially more intelligent than a chicken.

I'd actually make the argument that most dairy cattle have a much better life than any but the most "organic" chicken. Speaking for the situation here in Germany, where I studied veterinary medicine.

Mammal vs Fish is a very different question.