I agree with many of Singer's arguments, but there's one crucial distinction that needs to be made: We may care about animals, but animals don't care about people. Almost all animals are sociopaths. The biggest reason your cat doesn't kill you is because it's not big enough. Big cats do kill people. Even our closest relative, the chimpanzee, has been known to kill and maim human adults and children without provocation.[1] They have even, without warning, viciously attacked humans who raised them.[2]
While I don't think it's ethical to breed and slaughter sociopaths for food, I do think animals' lack of morals means we should care little about their well-being.
A lot of dogs could absolutely kill you, but they don't. My cat could be 100 lbs and she'd still be more interested in kibble and pillows than mauling me. So, no not all animals are sociapathic (I'm not sure that's the right word in any case). Wild animals are wild and do wild animal things, they absolutely live and die by a different code.
But this whole argument, I think is spurious. Simply because they follow a different set of rules doesn't mean that they don't deserve our caring and protection.
Your argument sounds a lot like the one people make about other groups of people who find themselves morally superior versus another group. Replace "animals" with "muslims" or "jews" or "communists" or whatever and it may sound familiar.
That we recognize and respect that animals have needs and feelings even if they are not beneficial to us is exactly the point of this.
I also note that this idea that people care about animals and not the other way around is hard to respect given which direction the killing typically goes.
For the most part animals ignore people. For the most part people kill animals.
While I don't think it's ethical to breed and slaughter sociopaths for food, I do think animals' lack of morals means we should care little about their well-being.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_chimpanzee#Attacks
2. http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a5609/chimpanzee-attack...