What the heck am I supposed to do about it?

[Alex]

Secondly, I understand the right to peaceful protest and I fully support it, but do I not have a right not to have my kids exposed to such brutal images without my consent? Those things could never go on a billboard, for example, so why can they flash them around while we are driving in to a parking structure?

On the bold part: no you don't have that right, not in public spaces. And if someone wanted to put those images on a billboard and found a company willing to do so, then it would be allowed (there was a brouhaha in SF a few years back about bus stop ads that showed topless women who had double-mastectomies; the same complaint was made about kids being able to see them).

Second, I find the protests against the specific eating of dogs and cats to be weird. I don't know what makes them so special that they deserve not to be eaten. As long as it wasn't somebody's pet I don't care (and I've had dog; it was ok).

I'm not a big supporter of the fur industry as I tend to think it is a waster of resources and has perfectly acceptbale synthetic alternatives. But if people want it anyway and we're killing animals anyway for various purposes it seems odds to single it out as particularly horrible, and again I don't see any reason for cats and dogs to get special treatment.