Quote:
Originally posted by MuadDib
cruelty
The reason I do not think animals can be cruel is that it is almost unknown for an animal to attack without justification. Animals generally attack for food (survival) or in perceived defense of their lives or their kin. What a human might perceive as cruelty is almost without a doubt a function of that species survival. The question of cruelty is then rather the act is done out of necessity or defense or if it is done out of malice, apathy, or vengence. At that most human violence against itself, the other species of this plant, and the Earth itself is generally unnecessary and frivilous while the alleged "cruelty" in nature is otherwise.
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So what is the necessity of the cat examples people have given? Where a cat plays with and eventually kills a mouse without eating it? Certainly the cat wasn't defending itself. It wasn't a case of kill or be killed.