Question

The problem of evil among human beings is usually explained by the possibility that they have free choice, and by the deficiencies of matter, and so on. But most creatures on earth are animals, and from roughly the moment of their creation they suffer an enormous amount of suffering in nature: they live in fear, suffer pain and cold, are preyed upon, and so on (and that is even before talking about the terrible suffering caused to them by human beings). If so, how does the good God allow so much suffering to animals? After all, this cannot be explained by their free choice or anything like that.