Are animals capable of malice? and other thoughts

[Leixor]

I've had serious debates over this question. I believe they are, because I believe animals to have emotion. But this goes further than emotion, malice requires knowledge of right and wrong. Acting on emotion without knowledge of right and wrong is instinct, or response. For example, to use a cliche, dogs and cats generally don't get along. However most of us are familiar with examples quite to the contrary. Can they get along just because they don't perceive each other as a threat(tolerance)? Or because it can be mutually beneficial(e.g. a cat and a dog curled up together on a cold night for warmth). Or does it go further than that? Cats are generally solitary animals(in the wild at least) yet abandoned cats that were raised by humans will seek out human companionship(and that of other animals). One might say they associate humans with food, but abused cats who were not even fed will sometimes seek out that companionship which in all rights they should see as not in their best interest. I've said a lot, and there are a thousand holes you can poke in what I've said, or a thousand ways to further it, but I don't wanna do all the work! My short answers to what I've said are, yes animals are capable of emotion, yes they have knowledge of right and wrong and hence capability of malice(an example to that effect would be cool, I don't have one), and companionship between animals cross species including humans can go beyond instinct/mutual benefit. Lastly I'd really like answers with thought and reason. Not "duh animals have no feelings!" and the like lol. If you wanna go the route they have no feelings, that's fine, but why? Well I hope to get some insightful answers and new thought on the subject! Edit : I suppose I did what I said not to, that is, state my belief without reason. My reason is after observing my pets, and especially the cross species relationships of my sister's pets, this is what I come up with. For example, my sister's dog is overly playful. With the larger cats it is quite rambunctious and overly assertive. But with the newborn kittens it also plays with, it is far gentler and kinder. To me that suggests it has the knowledge that it can't be too rough with the tiny cats. Nor does it appear to desire to. Actively avoiding hurting them suggests knowledge that hurting them would be wrong so to speak, and thus implies that knowledge. The rest of what I've said stems from that.

[JET73L]

I'd say yes, animals can show malice. Have you ever had a cat try to engage you in a staring contest, and whether you accepted or not, they scratched you? Or a dog who, only having met you once under neutral circumstances, decides thay now can;t stand you> Actually, those aren;t good examples. A better example might be when you have a cat that usually refuses to show empotion, and will walk up to you, and, without warning, either rub her head on your had for pets or attempt to swipe your wrist without warning of either intent? i'm not coming up with very good examples. I know many animals are capable of holding grudges, and some animals simply dislike certain humans for no discernible reason and show this in a seemingly malevolent manner, but I really can;t prove whether animals can actually be malevolent or not. It's kind of like if I had to prove you were sentient/conscious, and the fact that you can refer to yourself as "I" is unusable, because you may simply be parroting other people. It's effectively impossible to prove the animals/malice thing, unless you are an incredibly gifted telepath. (It's still impossible to prove to people who aren;t telepathic. I'm still on the side that says animals can show malevolence.)