many species do exhibit very ‘human’ behaviour. elephants are known to stop and caress the bones of dead elephants for many hours, eerily similar to human mourning.

“If people did the things that are normal for animals to do, we would consider them crazy or evil/bad. Yet, if animals are just like us, why do they do so many things we would call bad? Humans do bad things to, but we recognize we are bad. Animals don’t. For them, it is normal and they don’t care.”

2 points. one is a matter of intelligence, animals on the whole aren’t very intelligent or capable of hypothetical thought or complex reasoning, and being honest, morality is a hypothetical construct. however most small children would be unable to do this too, and must be taught by there parents what is good and what is bad, and they do not understand why until they are well past animal intelligence. secondly its about survival. sure, people are willing to uphold there principles when everything is easy, but in situations when your very life is at risk it has been observed that people will do terrible things, crushing small children to try and escape gas chambers, or killing and eating there crew members when stranded at sea.

“Imagine if you’re a male and you’re living with your parents. You finally become, say 18, and can technically live on your own. Imagine your parents kick you out of the house one day, threatening to kill you if you come back. In fact, if your father ever sees you around town, he will try to kill you. And your mom doesn’t care one bit.”

its a species difference. most primates have similar relationships with their offspring as we do but a snake abandons them at birth. thats not due to a lack of empathy, the mother snake just evolved that way. besides most people (except texans) would believe that even the most sociopathic serial killer deserved the right to life, even if not freedom. moral actions cant be taken as a decision maker for whether a creature has human rights.
i’m not vegetarian and in certain circumstances i’m not even against animal testing because as omnivores it is natural and healthy to eat meat and it is also natural selection to put the lives and welfare of your own ‘herd’ before that of others. i just find it arrogant to think that because our brains have developed to a certain size to enable complex philosophical thought that we are somehow better than those who don’t. on your final point i own a pair of cats, and i don’t personally take any responsibility for feeding them; by all rights they should ignore me, but they don’t, and i think you can develop a relationship with an animal just as you can with a young toddler or older baby.