Animal abuse

I like this movie, it's well done, has an awesome atmosphere, some great ideas, great pacing etc... it's still a classic.
BUT
from a grown up perspective in 2020, and not as a kid in the eighties, I have to say that it handles its topic in a completelly ignorant way:
Gremlins are creatures of this planet. A very intelligent kind of creature, almost as smart as humans. They are quite a rare species too.
They are just following their instinct in behaving "visciously".
Like a lion or a spider or an ivy (or a human) or whatever other lifeform on the planet, they are following a program that tells them to attack enemies to secure their habitat.

So, let's push beyond good and evil and let's see what's happening here:
an ignorant man "purchases" from an exotic animal trafficker a rare creature. Ignoring any correct handling of such species, he puts his ignorant family and town in direct conflict with a sudden overpopulation of such creatures (which the ignorant man's ignorant family directly caused).
We are supposed to root for such ignorants in their quest to violently exterminate such lifeforms (in the most gruesome kind of way), and cheer for them every time they do (like...shouldn't they, as human, as the superior species, at least try something else? They never ever once even attempt to capture them or sedate them or neutralize them: it's only the kill that counts).

All in all it's a movie in favor of animal abuse and cruelty, a movie that puts humans (no matter how ignorant, misguided or selfish) above other animals, no matter how rare or intelligent they may be.
I know I'm sounding like a sjw, but I don't see any other way to interpret what's happening in this movie.