Cats hunt mice and play with them in ways that’s adds more pain then necessary to kill the mice.
Hunter gathers have to learn to kill animals and that requires some ability to desensitize yourself against the pain of hurting prey. I think that lighting a cat on fire might be downstream of that.
Interaction with prey is very different then status competition with other humans.
Maybe, but for modern-ish humans in western cultures cats aren’t prey and really never have been. Certainly never to the extent that torturing non-prey animals for fun has been. AFAIK that behavoir is currently considered a predictor for escalating to similar abuse against humans.
Contrast that to society’s reaction to meat production: don’t make them suffer needlessly, or at least don’t make me watch/know about it.
Contrast that to society’s reaction to meat production: don’t make them suffer needlessly, or at least don’t make me watch/know about it.
This shows you that there are barriers that aren’t easy to overcome. A hunter gather needs to overcome those emotional barriers to be a functioning hunter gatherer. Evolution needs to have installed strategies that allow a hunter gather to overcome his empathy towards an animal and kill it.
Cats hunt mice and play with them in ways that’s adds more pain then necessary to kill the mice.
Hunter gathers have to learn to kill animals and that requires some ability to desensitize yourself against the pain of hurting prey. I think that lighting a cat on fire might be downstream of that.
Interaction with prey is very different then status competition with other humans.
Maybe, but for modern-ish humans in western cultures cats aren’t prey and really never have been. Certainly never to the extent that torturing non-prey animals for fun has been. AFAIK that behavoir is currently considered a predictor for escalating to similar abuse against humans.
Contrast that to society’s reaction to meat production: don’t make them suffer needlessly, or at least don’t make me watch/know about it.
This shows you that there are barriers that aren’t easy to overcome. A hunter gather needs to overcome those emotional barriers to be a functioning hunter gatherer. Evolution needs to have installed strategies that allow a hunter gather to overcome his empathy towards an animal and kill it.