Obsessed with animals factually, but not sentimentally
From a non-sentimental point of view, I am utterly obsessed with animal life. Whenever I see an animal, it automatically captures my attention and I will watch it for entertainment. I have studied a lot of animal facts and I can amuse myself all day simply watching videos of animals. I would absolutely love to work with them and volunteer with animal-related things just so I could see and interact with them day by day. I am also taking a whole lot of courses in college because I am eager to learn more about these interesting creatures. I could go on...
However, unlike many others who love animals, I hold far less sentimentality towards them, and I don't feel very emotional about animal related issues. For example, there are those sad animal stories that will often get people very emotional (often moreso that sad human stories), but for me usually, it will only provoke a twinge of sadness before quickly returning to my previous emotional state. Animal cruelty does provoke strong disgust from me, and I believe it must be severely punished, but it doesn't go anywhere near as far as wanting to kill animal abusers and send them to hell as it does with many animal lovers. Instead, the impression I get when I hear of typical (not extreme) animal abusers getting charged is "Wow, what a dick. Glad he got busted." and not "****ING MONSTER I HOPE HE BURNS IN HELL", though I'd say he had the latter coming. I care enough not to want to buy fur or down anymore, and I try to keep my meat consumption down for welfare reasons. Also, I have handled livestock for food before and when I had to kill them I always try to kill them in a more merciful way so that they won't suffer.
With the exception of Great Apes and occasionally dolphins, knowing interesting facts about animals do not deter me from eating them, nor do they ever give me the slightest bit of guilt about it. I have absolutely no qualms about killing and eating so-called "cute, innocent and defenseless" animals as long as they weren't killed cruelly. For example, I know cows have best friends and are quite emotional and clever animals. And I can recite that while enjoying a rich, juicy steak without feeling bad. Almost all animal-related guilt will be caused by concerns for their welfare, rather than the because they're smart/loyal/emotional/cute/innocent/etc.
It's not that I lack emotions or anything. There are indeed things that can trigger strong emotions. I've read stories online and seen stories on TV that have made me very emotional. For example, a Twitter feed of a woman who lost her father made me cry. However, out of all such stories that have made me noticeably emotional, only two were animal related, one being about a Great Ape being mistreated and the other one being a group of elephants being happy in the water after a long drought. The rest of the emotional content were due to issues that related to humans.
That's not to say that I don't care about animals. I've helped injured animals before, and I'd love to get a career in the field of animal welfare. I've also brought up animal issues with others and tried to convince them of more "humane" options. Seeing animal cruelty can put me into distress, too, but of all feelings evoked by animals, pretty much the only animal thing that will evoke emotions from me is animal suffering. However, on average, the sentimentality from me evoked by animal issues are usually dwarfed by the one evoked from people issues.
Is it normal to be obsessed with animals from an interest and fact standpoint, but not from a sentimental standpoint?