I've come across a lot of comments which say that if a man treats animals well, he's empathetic in general and won't tend to mistreat women.

It's an extreme theory IMO. A man who loves his pets doesn't mean that he's in the green flag territory or that he's empathetic, especially when we haven't taken into account how he treats other people and things in life.

I've seen and been with men, who are often "dog-lover" or "cat-lover" and the likes but still abuse their partners. To them, cheating, verbal, physical and emotional abuse, come naturally. They even go to the extent of murdering their partners but remember to take the pets away.

I can't think of any term to label such a behaviour, but it's definitely not empathetic. I'm not saying that one shouldn't look after animals, most importantly stray ones but what I'm trying to say is, men don't consider us as humans. We don't even belong to their idea of a hierarchy, let alone expect compassion, love and respect like they give to animals. It's extremely dehumanising.

It's weird how their brains function.