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humans are the only animals capable of sadism in my opinion. An animal will react to a situation when it believes it's defending itself or following its instincts (or habitual behavior taught to them, as in attack dogs). I don't think animals necessarily enjoy inflicting pain on others, a cat playing with its prey is more curious than anything else (except in the case of mousers, where it's for survival); "ok I finally got that damn to hold still, what IS this thing??" Cats also think of it as a service to their humans. My aunt's cats would catch mice and go crunch on their bones under her bed while they were sleeping, to let them know they were keeping the local rodent population in check. My sister's cat will bring rats, mice, and birds inside and leave them on her bed to find. My blind cat caught a bird and was bringing it inside once when i caught her and yelled. she jumped outside and the bird literally flew out of her mouth into a tree... I was amazed.
I still find dragonflies on the floor near my bed every so often. So pride, yes. curiosity, yes. cruelty? no.
as for humans, I'd say cruelty comes from how we were raised.
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