OK, now apply what you just said to plants and fungi and single celled organisms.

Get yourself out of your human-centric, mammal-centric, animal-centric point of view and realize that at the cellular level we're effectively indistinguishable. We can't even talk to Dolphins, who we know are intelligent, and you expect me to discount the intelligence of every other living thing? Laughable. We're all made of the same stuff, all the way down, and humans aren't exceptional.

Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_perception_(physiology) Your chief take-away should be that plants know when they're being eaten, and take actions to defend themselves.

The necessity of death in order to further life is why every religion has thankfulness rituals around meals.

These aren't new thoughts, or thoughts unique to me. Look into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism

> who are we to decide these other beings lives?

Some folks, who've asked that question, decided they didn't have the right, and aren't available to talk to any more. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯