why do humans cook their meat when no other animal does the same
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Cooking requires fire.
Fire requires three things. Oxygen, Fuel, and heat.
While it’s possible an animal with paws could capture the first two, generating heat sufficient to start fire with wood (the most common fuel) requires temperatures in excess of 450′ degrees F. That is exceptionally hard to pull off without a tool.
We figured it out. It’s a wood spindle atop a wood plank with a notch containing tinder.
And using a tool like this requires either opposable thumbs, or the ability to make a bow-string-type spinner for focusing friction, which also requires opposable thumbs to use and to build.
The only alternative approach would be to use paws to capture fire into a carrying container which could be transported and used in an attempt to ignite other fuel sources (which would be labouriously difficult without axes and other opposable-thumb requiring tools.
TL;DR Look down at your hands, find your thumbs, and kiss them like they deserve it.
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