Although many of us would like to consider ourselves friends to the animal kingdom, our relationship with it can be much more complicated than that.
Although it's arguably possible to live in a way that doesn't cause harm to them, many of us can point to products we use and consume every day as something that an animal died for.
Yet, even among those who have come to terms with this relationship, wanton cruelty to animals is still unacceptable.
So it's understandable that an infamous, ongoing festival in China would continue to inspire outrage.