Why do people think they're more important than animals?

Is it a superiority thing? A power thing?
I'd love to know...
What makes us so much better than them and why do we get to kill them to eat?
People give me the crap of "oh humans were made to eat meat" but I say if we can live without harming another living thing then why not do it?
If another species came along and decided we weren't as good as them so oh yeah we'll just eat them seeing as they're good for nothing I'm almost certain we wouldn't appreciate it.
But people are wrong! Animals are good for something, they're a part of our society and they give back.
Craig Busch is a good example of someone who wants to help look after and conserve the life of animals. He is also known as the Lion man and the owner of Zion wildlife gardens in New Zealand (somewhere I'd love to go) however its around £800 a day trip.

Exploitation of animals

It's places such as SeaWorld and Discovery Cove (Orlando, Florida) who seem shocked when animals make unprovoked attacks on humans, even children. They proceed to investigate and try to find out what the motive was behind the attack. The most recent headline in The Times on such a subject read as "Killer Whale drags trainer Dawn Brancheau to her death in Florida". Most of the article read about the sadness of the womans death who had 16 years of experience in working with the whales in SeaWorld. Working with animals is always a good thing, looking after them and caring for them and of course I myself agree that the death of any person is sad, but when the exploitation of these animals begins is when it becomes wrong. These unprovoked attacks are clearly a result of Whales and such animals being trapped in confined spaces. Having been to SeaWorld to watch the whale show as a child which I had no choice about but however had no opinion at the time, I wasn't aware that we didn't see where the whales and dolphins are kept, it's not a pretty site. Although millions of pounds are pumped into this economy every year the animals are still not treated to a good enough standard.

Taiji, a national park in Japan has the annual killing rate of Dolphins of 23,000. The migrating dolphins are herded into a hidden cave where they are netted, then sold off to places such as Discovery Cove and SeaWorld. The remaining animals are killed by means of spears and knives over the sides of small fishing boats. The National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyas has made an award winning documentary called "The Cove" made with cameras disguised as rocks to raise the awareness of whats going on in Japan.