The love for animals

There are some people who love animals, there are others who don't. Then there are some who work very passionately for animals, the reason they say - We Love them ! Understandable, they love them so they help them. But we all have friends who think they love animals, but also indulge into actions which are harmful or hurting to them. They love animals, but seldom/never become a part of their welfare. How is that ? So I started searching the answer to this question, is this love for animals or just Fascination for animals ?

PS : Just a reminder, Love and fascination both are positive emotions.

 After my search I deduced these two main points of thought:

Love:We all have some loving relationships in life, so we all have experienced what love is, and how one feels in it. I think you will agree that in love what gives the most amount of  joy is "to give". We do expect returns, Yes, but to give to someone we love gives us special contentment and bliss.And to give and make the other happy is the primary feeling in love.

Fascination:Whereas in fascination or mere liking, the primary feeling is the joy that people derive in being with their beloved.So talking in context of animals, they are really happy and impressed in animal company or looking at animal behavior.They appreciate the unconditional love that animals are known to give. But this is not love for animals because the the primary feeling here does not involve the feeling "to give", even at the cost of some personal sacrifice. 

Love : As I said above in love we want to give to the beloved. There is also another opposite extreme to this.When we love, will seldom "consciously" (if ever) indulge into behaviors which we know are going to harm our beloved. Their suffering or pain  will also give us pain which we all want to avoid at all costs, unless we know that this pain is temporary and in the long run it will be beneficial for our beloved.

Fascination : As we know that many people who think that they love animals also indulge into other behaviors which are harmful to animals like eating them, wearing their skins etc.. This behavior is at the other end of "the feeling to give". This is not just the lack of the feeling to give but the "feeling to take" is rated so high here that, it can hardy be called love for animals Whether this can even be called fascination is the question ?

People fascinated by animals :

• It can be very easy to get confused between the two feelings because both are positive. And it involves some analytical thinking and introspection to understand and differentiate between the two.

• What they really mean when they say that "We love animals" is that we are "fascinated by animals". 

• What they want to say is that animals are charming, cuddly little beings whom we appreciate and like.