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BonzaiRob wrote:

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TheNoob wrote:

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Their only feelings are pain, sexual arousal, and hunger. So, pretty much, I don't see harming or killing wild animals as unsettling or tragic.

JDLJDL wrote:

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@TheNoob: I have the exact same thoughts. Most animals do not have a complex enough brain (or no brain at all) to feel "sad" or "angry". They just look like so occasionally and trick those of us who personify everything.

The emotion most applicable would be stress, which even fish feel. Stress and fear are linked, and in almost all animals cause hyperventilation, heart arrhythmia, and high blood pressure, often leading to more painful things like passing out or death by anyeurism, heart failure, oxygen starvation, etc.
All the meat animals are herd animals, even the fish, so they all feel loneliness too.

Maybe you misunderstood what "empathy" means; you said you couldn't feel empathy for animals because they only feel... things that you share with them. Would it be easier to empathise if they had no emotions or conciousness? I think you have it backwards.

Humans inflict terrible suffering in not only each other, but other species too. We're impressively evil in that respect. For instance, that owl died because the footballers playing the game were too stupid to leave it alone, or found it funny to kick it and cause it pain. It suffered and died a painful death because humans found it amusing. To appeal to something you're probably more familiar with, isn't that the basis of most horror stories? Unempathic higher powers who torture and kill because they can.

If anything kills my faith in the human race, it's cruelty to animals. We are like gods to them, and vengeful, stupid ones at that.