The irony about these questions of cruelty is that YEC’s think blaming Adam & Eve solves the problem.
And yet, the Bible itself specifically puts the two worst events of “natural evil” right on God’s lap:
The Flood, of course, whether regional or global, is a prime example of animals and baby everythings being wiped out at God’s insistence.
Secondly, the much more “surgical elimination” allowed by The Destroyer during the Exodus story, doesn’t exactly give the readers warm fuzzies - - clearly it does not spare a great many innocent lives:
Exodus 11:4 - 6
And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.