I have serious difficulty with empathy, actually, but logically I figured something out as a little kid.
I found a toad once when I was like 3, was the first one I'd ever seen, I couldn't figure out why this little rock looking thing kept moving, so I did what I do with interesting little machines.
I took it apart, unfortunately when I broke it, I couldn't make it work again. I put it all back together in the right arrangement, closed it up, even set it so it looked like it did when I first found it, but it wouldn't move anymore.
I would have preferred the toad to have kept on working, and felt remorse that I couldn't fix it. After reading up on biology some more, I couldn't figure out exactly why living creatures have a certain "void if broken" quality, but I knew I had more in common with the toad than a watch, and shouldn't take anything apart that is living.
I lack empathy, but I recognize logically that other life forms have a general goal: to stay alive, so I don't kill shit.
If you can't empathize with an animal, at least you can recognize that if given the choice, it would obviously pick life.
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