[Amirmsheesk]

Recently someone shared an article which really drove me to start seriously learning about Buddhism. It was an article with graphic pictures of a horrible act of animal cruelty by a couple of kids which I won't share the details of here. It greatly disturbed and upset me and, when I contemplated why this was so, I realized it was because I felt helpless to help the poor animal. That really pushed me to want to learn more about Buddhism to one day gain the power to stop such suffering.

But it also presented another problem for me. It was easy to feel compassion for the animal, but I struggle to feel any true compassion for the kids who did it, when they did so solely for amusement. Yes, I am aware that it will leave a nasty karmic imprint, but as much as I want to, I cannot feel sorry for it. I feel justified that they will eventually get what's coming to them so to speak, I want them to need to deal with the karmic implications of the act as a sense of justice. I don't want to harm the kids personally myself, but I want them to feel the consequences of their actions, and that in turn creates some anger in me (which is a dead give away that this isn't a good way to feel).

Does anyone have any advice on how to develop compassion for people who perform such acts? It's the same for child abuse or anything else I consider a truly horrific act. It's difficult as, while I acknowledge that a person is not the act, they are still the ones who performed the act and should feel the consequences of such a thing. Any help someone could provide would be greatly appreciated, this is something that has bothered me for quite some time and when I try to meditate on it I just go around in circles and wind up making myself angry both at the act and at myself for not being able to figure it out.