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nkelsch wrote:
Does that make our cats evil?

That depends on how self aware they are.

Is all of nature 'evil'?

Nope.

And what artificial construct makes humans distinct from nature and our morality set us apart?

The ability to understand the results of our actions and how they effect others.

 notprop wrote:
Its entirely irrelevant but that example the animal in question (it's a badger right? In my head its a badger.) would be staking a claim to territory and sending out a warning.

Suggesting that animals are Sadistic is daft.

You should agree. I think this Badger is gonna claw you a new one if you don't, the sadistic bastard!

TBone stepped on a bug once just to watch it die.

And I thought Darwin had already proved that cats were evil. It was in his follow up book to Origin of the Species, the lesser known Origin of Why Cats Are Evilz

Those effete French dogs you refer to are of course evil.

Everyone knows Cats are also evil, many forget that they are arrogant as well. "that's right, I can lick my own balls. What of it Hooooman?"

 notprop wrote:
Its entirely irrelevant but that example the animal in question (it's a badger right? In my head its a badger.) would be staking a claim to territory and sending out a warning.

Suggesting that animals are Sadistic is daft.

I had read recently that a group of scientists were out and about on the water, studying some animal, when the came across something they never expected to see.... They witnessed a group of otters in the middle of a territorial/mating/ whatever dispute. The male who ended up winning "defiled" the body of the loser, then, in front of the others started to skull feth the dead body. Naturally, some scientists and non-scientific people will call that act "sadistic" but it is like notprop is saying: this guy was sending a warning to those who would infringe on his space/women/food sources