Historically, kings would hunt animals as a hobby, which was very wrong. We began to see them as prey or a sporting target. Coming back to modern times, cases like these involve psychopaths who don’t feel pain or empathy, and that’s why they are able to hurt other beings. They see animals as a soft target where they can beat or kill them to express their anger without consequences. These individuals are unlikely to graduate to cruelty towards humans as they are anti-social and would not engage with those who could confront them
—Rajendra Barve, clinical psychiatrist and author