Animal abuse

They like to kill people, though.

It's a movie about fantastical evil creatures. Yes, they're plain evil devil's spawns who do evil for evil's sake. Lion kills for food or at worst for play (which is also important for survival as a sort of training). Gremlins are a mythological archetype representing a corrupting force. For example, when engineers can't find a cause of the problem, they'll say it's the gremlins. So no, treating a mythological horror as just another animal would deafeat their point.

May I suggest two good Star Trek (original series) episodes that addresses the issue that your thread raises (killer creatures among humans)

'The Man Trap'

'Devil in the Dark'

Both have different answers.

They were an invasive species which went from one to hundreds within a day or two. There was no way for the town to capture them and sedate them. When the characters tried to contain them, they retaliated, mamed, and killed. Sorry, but I disagree. What the movie showed us was a day or two. Imagine a week of Gremlins. You can contain them, but it only takes one to restart the cycle.

Billy's dad shouldn't have purchased Gizmo. He wasn't responsible.

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Given their ability to mass multiply with great ease and the enormous chaos, destruction and even death they inflict, Gremlins would at the very least be considered a ‘pest’ and on that basis would be culled like any other pest creature except more urgently.

The old man was right, Gizmo should have stayed in the shop.

I don't totally share your perspective, but I get where you're coming from.

The issue, as I see it, isn't about the gremlins' moral centers, but the lack of consequences that Billy, Billy's dad Randall and Mr. Wing's grandson face. People get killed and maimed, but the actual causers of trouble don't suffer any serious lasting effects.

When a pet harms someone severely, it gets put down, but putting down the gremlins doesn't feel like comeuppance because they're not entirely responsible for the damage caused - it's the ignorance and greed of the three humans mentioned that led to the deaths and harm of the people in town. And then at the end, after a slight scolding, Billy gets told he might get Gizmo back someday - wtf Mr. Wing. Wtf.

So I can definitely see why you'd call this a movie about animal abuse. It's like Wing wants the gremlins to be born, just to be murdered by Billy and friends. Or else he's secretly hoping the gremlins do some population control? Not quite sure.

Frankly I see Gremlins as being like wolves in the U.S. Wolves used to be all over the U.S. Til men came from European countries and built houses and farms. The wolves were a threat to their live stock and pets so they went about hunting wolves to near extinction.

This might be considered wrong by you but it was neccesary so that farms could produce their cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys for everyone to eat meat.

The Gremlins are worse than wolves in that they are a threat to all life as we know it. Plus they are a biproduct of giving Maguias food after midnight. Therefore Gremlins should not exist at all and nobody should feed Maguias after midnight. That's my take on it and you probably won't agree with me on it.