Animal welfare versus abolitionist movement

Bruce Friedrich from PETA wrote an interesting article about why animal welfare movements are important and  can lead to the eventual abolition of animal slavery.  The comments following the article are for once not cringe-worthy and contribute to the debate. I am undecided on the issue. I am certain that we must strive for abolition, not just welfare reform, but decreasing the suffering of animals immediately seems like a worthwhile goal too.  It seems to me that most people will never go directly from being indifferent to food animals to veganism unfortunately. I didn't!  It took me years of increasing awareness and self-reflection to realize that veganism, rather than vegetarianism, is the right thing to do. Though I give credit to authors/bloggers like Erik Marcus and Gary Francione who helped me see that.  However, considering the opportunity cost, or the limited time and money available, what will produce the biggest changes, promoting veganism or animal treatment reform?  This is an important and empirical question!