One point at a time here. A cat is NOT sentient. It is NOT conscious in that it is aware of it's own existence. Unless you find a way to get a cat to speak to all of us and say that "yes, I am a conscious and sentient being!", then by all definitions, these animals are just animals. I never had cat, but I heard it is pretty good when cooked with eel or snake.
And the superiority of Western civilization does not lie primarily in technology or economics, these are secondary side effects. The primary superiority is in the idea that we are all precious in the sight of the Creator, and cruelty, even to an animal, is simply horrible and unacceptable.
Yeah right keep in mind it was the west that conquored, pillaged and slaughtered its way to world dominance. All under the auspices of the creator I assume? The power of the west lies in its technology, good governance, and powerful military, and not in how it treats its animals.
Because the Chinese have no such idea, they will never be a great civilization, no matter how far their economy or military goes - all of which I might add, is simply by COPYING the Western world! The Chinese contribute NOTHING original, only copy and steal while screaming how great they are.
How can they not copy, there technology even after all this work must still be 15 years behind that of the U.S, the cheapest way to gain knowledge for them would be to copy it. What would you have them do, reinvent the wheel?
Quit harassing me with your barbaric opinions, don't you have an animal to go and torture somewhere?