I don’t see how the way animals treat humans or other animals is relevant for the discussion about the ethics of meat eating. They aren’t nice so we can kill them to eat their meat is certainly not an ethical argument.
Animals try to stop humans from eating them because they do not want to get hurt. Or, if you want to be more precise, hurting and frightening them is a stimulation that induces intense negative emotions in animals which leads them to defend themselves. That is to distinguish them from plants, which also defend themselves, but without having emotions in between. The negative emotions in between is what we call suffering. And even in the ethics of hedonism, less suffering is better.
We have laws to protect animals because most humans agree that animals are in a weaker position when compared to humans. They are very much at our mercy.
The way humans treat animals is the same as how animals treat animals because humans are animals. Just because we are smarter doesn’t make us any less a part of the natural world.
A dolphin is smarter than a mackerel, it doesn’t make the dolphin immoral for eating them.
Humans are animals, but animals all have their unique traits. And for humans morality is a dimension they can’t remove themselves from. It’s an innate trait we are very likely born with.
Whether this can be said about dolphins or any other animal is up for debate and doesn’t even concern the question whether it is morally okay to kill and eat them.
