@baodog Thanks for thinking this through and sharing it. I have two questions for you.
"even in this most optimal situation a cow lacks a sufficient level of cognitive function to enjoy life to the point that its future pleasure outweighs the suffering derived from undergoing treatment."
What is your reason for saying that cows have so much less cognitive function? Every day we're finding out that farm animals are smarter than we ever gave them credit for. Pigs are now known to be smarter than dogs.
But there's a more important issue here. The ability to experience pleasure (sentience) is not based on higher cognitive functions. It's true that a being with lower cognitive function will not be able to have certain types of pleasures, but the simpler pleasures are not necessarily any less pleasurable than the ones that require higher cognitive function.Why does a lack of empathy for food animals decrease our moral obligation to them? They suffer just the same whether we have empathy for them or not.