Last week, a group of beach-goers in Buenos Aires found at least two baby dolphins in the ocean and passed them around to take selfies with them. A man posted a video on Facebook of the crowd passing around the baby dolphins, but people became outraged when it was discovered that at least one of the dolphins was dead.

Originally, reports said the dolphin died as people passed him or her around. Since dolphins have thick skin, which can become overheated and dehydrated, this is plausible. However, the man who posted the video now says the dolphin washed up on the shore already dead.

Either way, Viva Sylvestre, a conservation group and partner of the World Wildlife Fund, took the opportunity to educate the public about proper wildlife care. They reminded people to release wild animals back into their habitats if they accidentally escape. This is especially important for dolphins, who are labeled as “vulnerable to extinction” and have only 30,000 individuals left in the world.

However, whether the sun exposure killed the dolphin or if people passed around a dead dolphin is not the point. People were completely outraged. There were belligerent and vulgar tweets, as well as angry articles and posts. But what makes this incident so much different from the millions of animals who suffer everyday?

Humans have always had a superiority complex when it comes to our position on the Earth, and a bad habit of using animals for entertainment. By now, most people know about the horrific conditions of circuses and marine animal shows. When children see ants, they shine magnifying glasses on them for entertainment, and many people display dismembered pieces of animals as decorations and trophies. These do not include the millions of animals bred and cruelly treated in the name of low prices at grocery stores.

I think the funniest part is that we love these animals. We thank chickens for giving us eggs, and some people even say they hunt because they love animals and wildlife. Because we humans consider ourselves the highest species on this earth, we don’t realize when we are not treating fellow animals with dignity. Much of the time, we feel entitled to use animals for our pleasure and entertainment and benefit, and we don’t realize that they are sentient beings just like us.

Nevertheless, we are all living on this earth, and we are all equally entitled to the right to live. So what makes this individual incident so outrageous, when countless other animals are treated just as inhumanely, if not much worse, every day? Is it because we empathize with individuals more than large statistics? Or have we been desensitized to everyday cruelty, and we are only interested when the methods are novel?

Dolphins are cute, and the beach-goers most definitely meant no harm, whether they killed the dolphin or not. Passing around a dead creature to take selfies with it raises questions about our respect for life and for the dead. But the beach-goers were having fun and were unaware of the possible risks. Only when we place ourselves as just one of the countless species on this earth will we learn how to properly interact with animals and enjoy them without harming them.