That wouldn't fall under the umbrella of "just because you can". Just because you can means, you don't need to, but you do it anyway, because you can.
I'm also arguing that it is not necessary to be cruel to animals, even if you have to eat them. Beating and torturing a chicken doesn't provide any more protein than if you treated it humanely and slaughtered it in a quick and painless way.
You can even argue that being a part of our diet actually benefits the species as a whole. You don't see cows and chickens on an endangered species list, but you don't see them in the wild either.
To go even further, we will eventually have the ability to create synthetic meats that don't require us to slaughter animals.
It could apply to anything, I've heard of vegans who go as far as not using anti-bacterial soap because they don't want to kill the bacteria, or not eating honey because they consider the honey as stolen property belonging to the bees.
My point is in order to do something you wouldn't like done to you to something else, not out of necessity, but just because you feel like doing it, you may have missed an update or two from evolution's package manager.
In my world, the only obligations anyone or anything has, are to defend yourself, and to treat others in the manner that you would want to be treated.
Exploiting a superiority over another species just because you can, in my opinion, is an indication of that one hasn't transcended inferior instincts.
All personal opinions of course, I could be wrong about everything.