Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno extends the concept of compassion to all living beings, just as he extends consciousness to all living things. This he links to heightening our sense of imagination, not the capacity for fantasy but for empathy and solidarity with the beings of the universe.
I feel the pain of animals, and the pain of a tree when one of its branches is being cut off, and I feel it most when my imagination is alive, for the imagination is the faculty of intuition, of inward vision.