This is what I was thinking and it's not just a human thing. There are so many videos of various animals befriending each other, when one would kill the other in the wild.

Having basic survival needs met allows the space for compassion and other noble instincts.

Undisciplined

Dogs_And_Cats

why some places mistreat animals more than others

stack_harder

I believe in subsistence societies animals are either used as food or they are seen as competing for food. It's simple survival. There is also gratuitous cruelty, maybe fostered by someone's lot in life. The powerless exercising power over a creature lower on the power scale. 