The cycle of life, I hate to say it, was made up by humans, the perpetrators of this ongoing 'holocaust' towards animals in an effort to appease people's conscience's. Animals in the wild actually have the chance to fight back - when an alligator goes for a deer, there is always that chance for a deer to escape. Our systematic raising-and-killing of 56 billion of land animals(this does not count marine/aquatic life who's yearly numbers killed are so vast they are only measured in tonnes) isn't 'the cycle of life.' It's not benefittng the earth at all. Please take the time to watch Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret to understand that the choice to eat meat and other animal products is the antithesis of benefitting the earth in some way. I know this is 'up for debate' although truly becoming less and less so with each passing day, veganism is actually much healthier for us and it's no surprise that something that is healthier for us actually is healthier for the planet as a whole as well.
Oh and if anyone takes offense to the holocaust reference, there have been actual holocaust survivors that liken the 'current an ongoing animal holocaust' to that they experienced under Nazi Germany so this is a very legitimate comparison to be made with many parallels. The thing is that people have objectified animals to such a degree that they are not even victims anymore.