Well, yeah, actually.

Sadists of any variety experience a rush out neurotransmitters associated with gratification. It's the same with addiction and fetishes. Dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine

Just be aware, there is more nuance to the various forms of expression of sadism and "psychopathy". The two tend to go together, with varying tinges of narcissism, in abusers. There's often a disinhibition factor as well as some degree of learned behavior.

When it comes right down to it, animal abuse of the type you're talking about comes along with a degree of belief that animals aren't really the same as a human. They're seen by some abusers as things, property. It can't be abuse if it isn't a sapient being.

Others though, they don't think it's abuse. They think it's training, and imo those are worse because they're also morons that can't be bothered to seek knowledge on something they want to do. It's vibe training rather than experienced, empirically based training.

My general rule when it comes to animal training (forgive the tangent) is that if you wouldn't do it to a toddler, you shouldn't do it to the animal. The corollary to that is that if you wouldn't do it to a really big dude you don't know trained in martial arts, you shouldn't do it to a toddler. Because some people will apply the same level of violence to their toddler that they would to their puppy or whatever.

But that's not the same as outright intentional abuse, hurting for the sake of hurting.

But look, sometimes animals can be stressful. We can get angry at them. So even an animal lover can find themselves having the darker parts of their minds flashing a image of kicking an animal. But we non abusive sorts have inhibition, we have control over our actions. So it's always important to remember that it isn't about superiority. You don't do things right because the ones doing wrong are lesser, you do things right because it's right, it's humane, it's outright more effective.

The kind of thinking that leads to feeling superior to the people that are abusive can very easily turn into the exact same way of thinking about how to treat them. I know you've seen it, people crowing about punishing abusers, beating them, killing them. You fall into that trap, and all you're doing is craving hurting someone, with camouflage. You'd just be an abuser with a different victim profile.

I don't say that to point to a different kind of self superiority. I say it because those of us that have darkness in us (the vast majority have expressions of what gets called the dark triad) have to self police harder than the people that aren't even aware what they're doing is wrong. You get sucked into thinking you're better, that the ugly things you think about are okay because X justification, you are effectively the same.