Animal Welfarism v. Animal Rights

After stepping into the discourse of ethical veganism (through Bob Torres' Making a Killing), I am continuing my study in that area in the hopes of using it in future academic pursuits and my own writing. Thus, I am currently reading Gary Francione's Rain without Thunder (1996), and am trying to decide where I stand on the issue of animal welfarism, and how (or rather--at what point) I should differentiate between the two. On the one hand, incremental progress in animal welfare is good, and a goal to work towards; however, it is not an end goal, especially if welfarism permits and justifies "humane slaughter" under the argument that the animals are afforded more comfort in the span of their lives. I anticipate this to be a longer post in the near future, but just wanted to get my thoughts out there--it's been a while since I've posted.