Dog "raped" and "murdered"

Let's begin with some headlines:

Dog found raped, murdered and left hanging from tree 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/dog-raped-murdered-hanging-tree-5000-reward-us-washington-a6954286.html 

Suspect arrested in rape, murder of Thurston Co. dog 

http://www.kiro7.com/news/suspect-identified-in-rape-murder-of-thurston-co-dog/205174866 

FBI investigating dog rape, murder in Thurston County 

http://www.kiro7.com/news/fbi-investigating-dog-rape-murder-in-thurston-county/178830564 

FBI investigating dog rape, murder in Thurston County 

http://www.nbcrightnow.com/story/31565710/graphic-warning-fbi-investigating-dog-rape-murder-in-thurston-county

So much to discuss:

i) Well, I guess we can be grateful that the FBI is investigating a dog killing rather than harassing conservative high school students:

http://www.dailywire.com/news/4071/fbi-tells-high-schools-watch-out-anti-government-james-barrett

That said, what does it say about current law enforcement priorities that the FBI is now investigating a dog that was killed? 

ii) Notice that the mainstream media now classifies the killing of a dog as "murder". You can "murder" a dog–just like you can murder a human. Indeed, killing a dog is "murder," but killing a baby is reproductive freedom. 

iii) Yet organizations like PAWS and the Humane Society kill animals. They call it "euthanasia". Is that "murder"? Certainly the animal didn't sign a consent form to be euthanized. 

iii) Likewise, the same mainstream media now classifies bestiality as "rape". That's very instructive. Let's pursue that line of though;

iv) I myself think this was a perverted deed. However, I'm a knuckle-dragging fundamentalist who gets his moral code from a Bronze Age book about a glorified storm-god (or so we're told). So let's bracket my retrograde religious beliefs and approach the issue from the standpoint of an enlightened atheist:

v) Peter Singer is the best-known, and perhaps the most influential, secular bioethicist of his generation. Yet he defends bestiality:

http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/2001----.htm

So we're going to have a conflict between secular animal rights activists who think bestiality is "rape", and secular proponents of zoophilia, zoosexuality, and/or bestiality. 

vi) Presumably, the media said the dog was "raped" because this was forcible or coercive penetration. Against the animal's will. 

If so, one problem with that rationale is that consent isn't a prerequisite for copulation in the animal kingdom. For instance, ever see ducks at mating season? Not much interest in foreplay. No candlelight dinner. Doesn't look like consensual sex to me. 

vii) Perhaps, though, the argument would be that because the perpetrator was human, different rules apply. But suppose the perpetrator claims to be otherkin? Say he self-identifies as a dog. It that event, is it rape for him to sodomize a dog? Shouldn't we judge him by canine standards rather than our provincial, anthropomorphic standards? 

For that matter, dogs kill other dogs. So if a person who self-identifies as a dog or wild predator (e.g. grizzly bear, Siberian tiger) kills a dog, how is that "murder"? When one animal kills another animal, zoologists don't classify that as murder. To do so would be speciesism. 

viii) If, moreover, otherkin is a valid identity, just like transgenderism, then it isn't murder when a person who self-identifies as a wild predator kills a human. After all, it's only natural for major predators to kill humans.