I do think part of it is kids being raised with a disconnect from the realities of life in the natural world. They only know people, and mostly dog and/or cats which have co-evolved with people for so long as to develop mimicking behaviors as a means to communicate. You get to farm kids, or one that's been hunting or fishing regularly, they know. They see life and death on the regular, they have a respect for animals and for people as part of one great big web that need each other to survive. They have respect and compassion without distortion, but also pragmatism without cruelty.

I run into a lot of urban kids that just plain don't understand how plants and animals work. They think food just appears at the grocery store, they anthropomorphize animals to a much greater extent because they've never been exposed to their quirks and behaviors.