I actually edited my comment almost immediately from echoing to previous comment's "animal abusers" to "animal torturers".
There's still worrying elements to lashing out at or seriously neglecting an animal in your care, but I don't think those are nearly as irredeemable as actively torturing an animal for pure sadistic pleasure.
I guess what's "worse" is what drives the behavior.
Persistent anger issues can definitely be a bad thing, and lashing out is not a good habit to develop, but at least the person is potentially capable of empathy since they're clearly experiencing other emotions like rage.
The kind of sadism we're talking about from serial-killer mentalities tends to be almost devoid of emotion in general (sociopaths), and almost incapable of developing guilt or empathy. Thus... they tend to be less capable of
I actually edited my comment almost immediately from echoing to previous comment's "animal abusers" to "animal torturers".
There's still worrying elements to lashing out at or seriously neglecting an animal in your care, but I don't think those are nearly as irredeemable as actively torturing an animal for pure sadistic pleasure.
I guess what's "worse" is what drives the behavior.
Persistent anger issues can definitely be a bad thing, and lashing out is not a good habit to develop, but at least the person is potentially capable of empathy since they're clearly experiencing other emotions like rage.
The kind of sadism we're talking about from serial-killer mentalities tends to be almost devoid of emotion in general (sociopaths), and almost incapable of developing guilt or empathy. Thus... they tend to be less capable of