Cruelty to animals, REALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I came across this incident where a Golfer killed a bird with a golf shot while filming a documentary. The golfer claims, he only tried to scare the bird away.The animal rights activist are trying to sue him because they feel he did it on purpose and that the bird is a rare species and is protected by wild life laws. I couldnt help but think about all the millions of chickens and cows being slaughtered all year and the ones that I eat :) . Unfortunately cows and chickens are not rare enough to deserve special protection. Is it their fault that they can be easily bred? Or is it our fault that we didnt take a liking to the meat of these other creatures and didnt try to breed them in bulk? So why are some species more precious than others? The answer to this question might lead us to the reason behind the amount of aid received by Hurricane Katrina's victims from the US government.