When I read about someone killing another person, my reaction is pretty much “That’s terrible.” – I’m slightly saddened for the deceased, for society, and indeed for the killer (in decending order of sadness) and I hope that the family of the deceased can cope, and that humans continue to evolve so that this sort of thing no longer happens, and that the killer is kept the hell away from other people he[1] can harm, and that he maybe sorts out his shit enough to cease being a fuckstick.
However, when I read about someone killing, or even mistreating, a cat .. well, my reaction is such that if I saw that person on fire, I wouldn’t even piss on them to put them out. I hope they die in a fire. Alone. And afraid.
This is a rather odd dichotomy, given that if you asked me, I would tell you that people are obviously more important than cats.
Perhaps one has this reaction because people can in general look after themselves when contending with other people, and cats clearly cannot.
[1] Statistically, it’s bound to be a dude.