Mrrzy - I have seen animals that were deeply offended about having been attacked by another animal or a person. They didn't forget about it. They carried a grudge about it. They plotted their revenge.

Animals do have a moral sense...it's just not usually nearly as complex as the moral ideas we humans come up with...because animals don't use such complex language as we do.

You're quite correct that the cat is not being consciously cruel when it plays with the bird...but the bird is offended (in my opinion). He reacts with horror and outrage, as is understandable.

The cat, like most creatures, is concerned with his own feelings, not those of the bird. If he became human, he might begin to question his own feelings...provided he was a rather advanced human. We are capable of further dimensions of moral thinking than animals, for sure.

You assume we made it all up. Fine. I don't necessarily assume that. I figure we made up some of it, allright, we're making up some of it all the time, but maybe not all of it. But I'm just theorizing. I don't know. Neither do you. Neither one of us has any way of knowing.