The sum of all atrocious acts done by humans against humans throughout history pales in comparison..

...to what is done to animals in a single year. Animals are the the most defenseless and the most exploited group that exists.

That is why I don't think arguments of the form "why do you care about a lion while human group XYZ is suffering?" fly.

By that standard, no one is ever allowed to care about an animal because there will always exist a human somewhere on the plant who is being mistreated who comes first.

The paradigm that animals have no rights and no value beyond that of a commodity, and that human interests should always be placed above non-human interests, is what drove many species to extinction or near extinction in the first place. That we are slowly moving away from that paradigm is a good thing, not a bad thing.

That, and I think that people who respect nature and respect animals are also more likely to treat other humans well (and sociopaths often target animals before they target humans), so the human-centric pragmatist gets something too. It is not a zero-sum game.