killing flies
I recently bought an electric fly swatter to handle the flies in our house. It felt satisfying to quickly zap them away.
However, today I encountered a fly that exhibited surprisingly clever behavior during its escape attempts. It almost seemed as if it knew what was coming and was afraid. Killing this particular fly felt wrong.
What determines our empathy towards a creature?
Do signs of intelligence or fear in an animal justify a change in how we treat them?