My family has always had animals... lots of them. It kind of got started with my mom's dad, who used to bring home pets for his kids (such as a baby skunk that he took to get de-scented).
Dogs, cats, rabbits, snakes, lizards, a horse, frogs, toads, parakeets, doves, zebra finches, a sheep, ducks... etc.
As a young teen, I was vehemently against the unnecessary killing of an animal. If I saw someone killing/mistreating an animal, I was very likely to intervene, and mark that person as an enemy indefinitely.
My mom loves animals and my dad does too, although he isn't nearly as quickly emotionally attached to them as she is (he also hunts, and taught me the principles of good hunting and wildlife management). It's funny, because I think it was a really good balance for me. My mom taught me compassion for animals, and my dad taught me that there is nothing wrong with killing/hunting an animal if there are two principles in place: 1. You will use what you have killed (or you're eliminating a pest animal, such as a pesky coon, or a coyote that preys on other people's livestock) and 2. You will always do it efficiently. He taught me that no animal, pest or otherwise, should not suffer if you are going to kill it. He despises people who hunt exclusively for sport and leave the carcasses to rot, or who kill animals that they have no reason for killing, or who lack the efficiency to kill the animal properly.
I've noticed that there's a weird thing in society where people think they can just kill animals without thought, just as they please... or they're the opposite and value animal life as much or more than human life. Which is stupid. People clearly have no idea what the word "stewardship" means. It means responsibility and proper management, whether it's taking care of domestic animals or wildlife.
I could get into the classic example of bad management with the wolves in Yellow Stone, but that gets my dander up... >u> (Here I go, anyway: Small, carefully managed and monitored population of wolves to thin out the sick caribou = good thing. Introducing non-native wolves from Alaska and letting them overpopulate and attack ranchers' cattle/killing off ALL of the native wolves to begin with = bad thing and classic example of overcompensation for bad management with more bad management to the other extreme. Idiots.)