I think you're probably taking them more seriously than they deserve. Unless they're vegetarian (and relatively few people are) or some sort of ethical consumer (again, few are), their concern for animal welfare extends no further than outraged speeches and shouldn't be taken as an actual belief. It is, rather, an easy path to cheap virtue.

In fact, it's partially because we eat other animals that we're so keen to protest our love for them. We know we consume but don't want to deal with it, so we choose a handful of species to elevate and protest that we have to be kind to animals. They are our tokens, and they help us forget that we sit at the head of the table, fork in hand, salivating.

We do also exploit people, but since the paths of exploitation are harder to trace, there's less pressure on us. It does happen, though. Thoughts and prayers are a good example - we select a token, think really hard in their direction, and proclaim how concerned we are for them. How much we love whoever and identify with whichever city.

These explosions of concern are cathartic exercises for people who do not actually give a damn, and have to deal with that somehow.

I don't think this means they're bad people - it's impossible to really understand the suffering of the world and we do have to pick and choose, but there are better methods of coping than #Kony2016.