The crux of your argument seems to be that it free-range meat is more cruel than factory farmed meat. That if an animal lived a good life before slaughter it is more tragic than if we birthed them in a cage, deprived and abused them consistently from start to finish.

We round them up because they are an invasive species that disrupts the local ecology. We slaughter them because nobody else wants them. But every ounce of meat produced this way seems infinitely more ethical than the more systemic methods.