So...
Compassion and love doesn't extend to all living creatures? Even if humans have being held in higher regards.
I'd advise not killing plants either then.
Or bugs.
Or all the microbes that you breathe by the moment and smother in your lungs.
Or all those germs that those murderous white blood cells in your veins are constantly absorbing, invading, and slaughtering so that you might live.
Or the tiny organisms you step on as you stumble, rubbing at tired eyes, from the bedroom to the bath every morning.
And so on.
Nature is screaming on some inaudible level with all the death that is part of the circle of life.
... and this is why I don't consider the eating of meat a big deal, although I suppose the actual cruelties of the meat market (animals raised in certain forms of captivity) is a connected but slightly different issue.
In Christian thought, there seems to be a reverence placed on creation. Since God created everything, one must respect the creation just as if you would respect the house of a person in which you were a guest. This doesn't mean you can never kill, nor ever eat meat or plants, or do other things to help you survive; it just means accepting that the world isn't yours to devour and plunder to the extent you might wish, that there is a healthy balance to be preserved and other things in this world besides the one who would like to consume, and it honors God to honor the creation.
...As far as the commandment in the "Ten Commandments" goes, the actual translation is, "Thou shalt not murder [another human being]," not "THou shalt not kill [any living thing]."
Punishments carried out by the state (i.e., the nation of Israel at the time) were not considered murder. If a man hit a pregnant woman and she miscarried her child, that was not considered murder either... the aggressor just had to pay the father a fine, he wasn't put to death. The nation went to war with foreign nations and/or defended its borders with ferocity, and again deaths occurred and were accepted; but murder, meanwhile, was specifically murder. You can't equate "death [of people or animals]" to "murder."
I've never really seen an issue with "Thou shalt not kill" somehow prohibiting the eating of meat. I'm thinking we're over-analyzing here. It was the law of the Jewish people at the time, and I don't think they were confused on it either, since it's pretty obvious they were fine with eating meat at the time.... but again, they did it in balance.