Question

Honorable Rabbi Michael Abraham, may he live long and well,
I have not found a satisfactory explanation for the fact that animals undergo real suffering even though they bear no guilt whatsoever.
Tosafot do indeed cite the Jerusalem Talmud, from which it appears that there is a connection between suffering and some bad deed they committed, but this does not resolve very many cases in which, through absolutely no fault of the animals, they are torn apart with great pain, as we see in reality. Maimonides also wrote in the Guide that animals feel their pain and are aware of it.
To shift the blame onto human beings, saying that animals suffer because of human sin, is hard to accept, since the ultimate purpose of good is to bestow good, and that would require that one creature not be allowed to harm another creature unless the latter somehow deserved to suffer.
As is well known, the medieval authorities (Rishonim) addressed the unresolved question of why the righteous suffer, and Nachmanides, in his commentary on Job and in several places, hinted that this is connected to reincarnation. But that cannot really be applied or explained with regard to animals, whose cruel nature has been built into them, and whose creation requires that in the food chain they prey on others, causing them great suffering.
This question has been troubling me for a long time, and I would be grateful if the Rabbi could put my mind at ease on this matter.