Re "should be immediately and deeply and naturally obvious to any Catholic": I don't know that any biblical text, or for that matter any detail of Catholic practice, can be described as so very obvious, to anyone. We must always begin with learning; and we learn from a variety of sources. And also we develop and cultivate particular interests, particular values, leaving unremarked certain others. So it's no wonder if we come up with quite different interpretations of e.g. the same biblical text. Interpretation is everything!

Re "share in His own creative & problem-solving attributes": If that is the correct exegetical criterion to be applied here, along with "becoming ever more like His son Jesus!," and I think it may very well be, then the interpretation licensing destruction becomes barely defensible. Killing animals can hardly be called "creative," still less loving.