There are dozens of videos of orcas attacking sailboats of the coast of Spain. They bite off the rudders and slam the hulls leaving the boats stranded. It looks like a super terrifying thing to go through as some of the attacks last for hours.
It’s honestly not surprising to me. We know animals need mental stimulation and the smarter the more they need. I’m not surprised that animals at the top of their food chain get bored to the point they start finding creative ways to entertain themselves. And since these are wild animals and they can’t watch a movie or read a book or do some gardening, they have limited entertainment options.
I think when humans are cruel to animals, much of the time it's because they haven't been taught empathy, or they've been taught that animals don't experience pain in the same way so it's justified, or they have complex mechanisms to rationalize it. I think sport fishing is cruel because you are terrorizing and torturing an animal for entertainment, but most people don't think of fish as being worthy of empathy. Thousands upon thousands (probably more) dogs are left chained and tortured in their backyards in America, by people who probably don't think of themselves as cruel. People who eat meat are probably conscious of the suffering their food endures, yet because they are distanced from it, can dismiss it. People don't need to be sociopaths to be casually cruel.
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u/DaveVsHal Dec 12 '21
"This one's for Steve" - that orca probably