Rights are derived from the fact that human beings have the capacity for rationality, and also that respecting rights is a constitutive part of one’s eudaimonia. Animals do not have rights, because they are not rational and their natural end does not require them to respect rights. Animals are, therefore, capable of being owned fully and completly. If you are opposed to what someone is doing to their animals, you can boycott them, etc. However, anyone “interceding on the animal’s behalf” would be violating the NAP.
Whether or not the abuse of animals is moral or not is a completely different question. I myself am opposed to it.