I don't know Locke, I've seen all kinds of tv showing things like monkeys ambushing and killing other monkeys, groups of young male dolphins pursuing, harrassing and raping female dolphins, one where a group of big fish pursued and harrassed a whale and her baby for days before killing the baby then leaving it uneaten.
I've watched the little birds around here lift fur after grooming my dogs, and fly off with the fur to nest inside my garage roofspace. They take their comforts, just as we do. I've watched crows and seagulls fighting over the best nesting places and crows (you always get laugh with the crows) bait baby seagulls and play with them for no apparent reason, no food in sight. They also really appreciate any improvements supplied to their environment.
People are a different matter. I don't like living like an ant in an ant farm, but the western way of talking instead of mass killing and fighting is definitely preferable to other cultures where they just beat each other to death to establish who's right. In my experience, those who are best at the beating others are generally worst at being decent human beings.
I was raised a christian, to treat people as I would like to be treated and to put myself last. This doesn't work, as you are the only one who does it, all you get from it is shafted.
But people are a contradiction. Most people here are bound into the current government culture of work work busy busy buy a house a car, no time to see your family or socialize, your time off work is entirely for yourself and you can't spare any of it for anyone other than immediate family, but even your children are fired off to childminders so you hardly even know them.
But when something like a tsunami (£10 million donated from Scotland alone within 7 days of that disaster) or earthquake affects others and they need help, or for example the abduction of little Madelein McCann in Portugal, people will give money hand over fist to help others.
Recently a tv news reporter here had cause to visit a place of real deprivation in Malawi and came back and reported the terrible conditions, asking if people would consider donating funds to build a hospital to help this country which none of us have ever seen. The hospital is now being built: stv
"stv's Christmas appeal aimed to bridge the poverty gap and raise enough money to build a new maternity hospital.

It was backed by Scotland's richest man, Sir Tom Hunter, who pledged to match pound for pound what viewers raised. In just two weeks, the target was smashed, and the campaign eventually raised £750,000."

Bottom line though, I prefer animals to humans. Not because they behave more honourably, but because you can connect with animals directly.
In human interaction there's too much interference. People are not honest, they conceal what they think, lie etc and they're far too influenced by things like physical appearance.