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All three of those statements are arguable. Many animals do not smell better than humans. Wild animals are never fat, and I don't think fat pets are cute. Older animals definitely deteriorate in physical appearance, it's just not something we're especially clued into, as we are to human appearance.
It should be noted that although humans can't run, swim or climb trees as fast as some other animals and can't jump as high, they can do all of those things better than any one other species can.
1) - when you say animals smell better than humans, do you mean that animals have a better sense of smell than humans do, or do you mean that the body odors of animals smell better than the body odors of humans? Most animals do have a better sense of smell than humans, and some animals have no sense of smell at all. Everything has a body odor that is unpleasant to something or somebody else.
2) - except for animals that are getting fat in preparation for hibernation, all other living things that are fat are considered unhealthy. I don't know of anything that is considered cute if it's fat. I do know that animals are considered cute when they're babies.
3) - It's true animals don't get ugly as they age but they aren't superior to humans in this respect though. Humans don't get ugly as they age either. Humans just gain more character lines that an astute and wise person will know how to read.
But then there's the hagfish, the only thing I know of that gets really ugly as it ages. A hagfish starts out ugly even as a baby and it just gets uglier and uglier as it ages.
Answers: (1) One might guess you've never been to a farm or zoo.
(2) The "cute" genes-- those that give the young vertebrates flatter, rounder faces with large eyes, smaller teeth and shorter, stubbier limbs than the adults of a species dates back at least to the dinosaurs, if not further back. ...They give a recognition signal to mothers to care for the young and to predators to avoid preying on the young....A predator capitalizing on the easy pickings of hunting down babies would lead to a decrease in the breeding population of the prey and therefore a smaller future food supply-- more risk than benefit to the hunter in the long run.
(3) They do (See answer #2) get les cute as they go from pre-reproductive age to reproductive age. They don't get "old" as in "senile" in Nautre.
The general answer to just about any question along the lines of "why do animals _____?" is "Evolution/survival value."
(2) The "cute" genes-- those that give the young vertebrates flatter, rounder faces with large eyes, smaller teeth and shorter, stubbier limbs than the adults of a species dates back at least to the dinosaurs, if not further back. ...They give a recognition signal to mothers to care for the young and to predators to avoid preying on the young....A predator capitalizing on the easy pickings of hunting down babies would lead to a decrease in the breeding population of the prey and therefore a smaller future food supply-- more risk than benefit to the hunter in the long run.
I don't entirely agree with the bolded part. Predators don't care or hold back about the cute appearance or age of their prey of any species except perhaps their own species within their own social/community groups. Nor do predators take future food supply into consideration. They will take whatever food is weakest and easiest pickings be it from helpless infant young to old and dying, and anything in between.
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