Hi everyone,

I want to thank everyone for their replies and help on this thread. Like a lot of you I came across this thread while googling how to cope with being extremely emotionally impacted by cruelty to animals.
I have an extreme empathy for animals. All of my life the suffering of an animal would have an extreme affect on me. I am not sure why but while I am also very empathetic to humans it is not on the same level as my empathy for animals. Why I have so much trouble with animals being in pain at the hands of humans is that the animal doesn’t know why this pain is happening, they cannot comprehend why they are being put through this brutality and it breaks my heart as I believe animals to be so pure and innocent. Even as I type this I am crying.
I am happy to see other people here who feel the same, as there is nobody in my life who can understand how the suffering of helpless animals impacts me. Even for example today, my neighbour has put their dog on a short chain at their house, and this morning I seen the dog crying and tugging at the chain trying to get free and it made me cry to think that this poor dog does not understand why their owner has done this to them. I spent about an hour this morning crying about this and I feel very sad now.
My family think it is irrational for me to be so upset about every bit of suffering that animals go through, on a cold night if I think of animals out in the cold it makes me sad, if I think of any animal being sad or lonely it makes me cry, I am extremely affected. I too think that it is irrational for me to be so consumed with every minor suffering of animals, I do not have the same sadness when I think about human sufferings.