"when we really look at the data, it’s not nature red in tooth and claw; there’s really a lot of empathy and compassion both within and between species"

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201001/are-nonhuman-animals-more-moral-human-animals-yes-they-are

In my new book that will be out in February called The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons For Expanding Our Compassion Footprint I follow the lead of University of California, Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner, who wrote a really good book that’s very popular called Born to be Good. The argument is not only are human animals born to be good, but other animals are also, and when we view the literature, it turns out that for all the studies that have been done across primates and other animals, more than 90 percent of their behavior is what we call “prosocial” or positive. What I like to argue, and what others like Frans de Waal are arguing, is that of course animals compete with one another, and of course they can do nasty things, but when we really look at the data, it’s not nature red in tooth and claw; there’s really a lot of empathy and compassion both within and between species.