if I dont eat it, the animal is still dead, and literally nothing has changed except that now its death will be a waste.
Meat eater here, but this is a strange justification. If you don't buy the package of beef at the grocery store, someone else will, it doesn't get thrown out. And that meat is there because of expected consumer demand. If people started buying less, grocery stores would start buying less as well, and the factory farms would raise fewer animals. "It's already dead might as well eat it" is an unfair excuse. I completely agree with what you said about hunting though. Hunted meat is way more ethical than grocery store meat.