Most meat people like to pretend they are superior to all other living beings. They use this belief of superiority in order to justify torture and murder of beings they consider less important.
Some meat people will rank other living beings. They put themselves at the top, but then they put other primates, dolphins perhaps, and often dogs at a level higher than the animals meat people kill to eat. They usually rank cute, furry animals higher than scaly, slimy animals. So, for example, they will often claim it's unethical to kill cute animals for meat (or fur or cosmetics), but that's completely reasonable to kill other, less cute animals.
Many meat people have a complex hierarchy of worth that they use to justify torture and destruction of other living beings. Of course, even if humans were superior to all other living beings, that doesn't justify torture or destruction, but meat people don't really care about those little details. They like meat and will usually find any irrational justification to excuse their unethical behavior.
