How can vegans even justify having pets? It's not okay to milk a cow but it is to keep a cat? Indoor cats are deprived of basically all of their normal cat activities. They can't range or roam, they can't socialize with other cats, they are denied their natural predator instincts. As much as I love my kitties, like keeping a predator as a pet is basically kind of a dick move. I don't care how good you treat your slaves, they're still slaves.
If vegans can keep cats, they can eat cheese if the cow is well cared for or eggs if the farmer isn't a dick to the chickens.
I agree with a lot of your points, however, outdoor cats are really bad for local wildlife, so from a purely utilitarian standpoint there's less animal suffering by keeping them inside. And they're not slaves, we don't force them into labor under penalty of death. You could argue for prisoners i suppose.
We fostered some feral kittens and I was worrying about the same stuff, restricting freedom and such, and then there was a big storm w hail and I went down to check on the kittens and they were cozy as hell.
There's more to it than just deprivation. One of ours is the baby of a feral momma but our lil girl has never seen a hard day in her life, no outside, no shelters. And seeing how much personality she has just melts my heart.
Not a good comparison. To produce milk regularly cows must give birth. These calves are often sold to be slaughtered as veal. Likewise situation for eggs. To produce hens farmers typically wait until the chicks hatch and throw the unwanted male chicks in a grinder.