I was watching Planet of the Apes last night (OK, it was actually already morning, but I hadn't been to sleep yet :-) ), and I noticed that the main ape hero made comments on human (i.e. real humans on Earth) great and harsh mistreatment of apes. Leo, our (human) hero, made no attempt to counter these claims, but instead seemed to agree that humans putting non-sapient [un-intelligent] animals in zoos*, was worse, not just as bad, but worse, than intelligent apes enslaving and murdering (sapient) humans.
I suppose that's reasonable, I mean hey their only humans they don't matter anywhere near as much as a dumb ape.
I know some people will think I'm just being silly about this, but I think it is a good example of this strange effect in our culture where doing something "bad" to an animal** has a greater negative emotional response than doing the same thing to a human, and therefore tends to be seen as worse. Which is a sad comment on our culture indeed.
* Which admittedly would not be suitable way to treat sapient creatures (like humans), but is acceptable for dumb, non-sapient animals.
** This mostly applies to cute animals (like kittens), and nearly always does not apply to icky animals (like spiders).
PS. I have a strong belief that all animals have certain basic rights, OK mostly just one, the right to be killed humanely before being eaten. :-)
