the loneliness of the middle distance runner

“I don’t like children. They’re too much like animals to have meaningful human interactions with them, and allegedly too human to kill and eat.”

The parallel structure here is terribly flawed, but I can’t quite figure out how to fix it. The first clause is too wordy. I need an adjective that means “like an animal” (to replace the “too much like animals” with a phrase in tighter parallel to “too human”) but isn’t any of the following:

animalistic (too long and prudish and prurient)
feral (only connotes wild animals)
bestial (way too many prurient associations)

I’m considering “brutish,” but I’m not sure if anyone uses that any more or if it would just look like a synonym for “brutal.” What I want is a word that connotes all animals, including domesticated animals like cows and pigs, so the thing about killing and eating doesn’t just come out of nowhere. Is there such a word?

Plus, I want a more active, clipped phrase than “have meaningful human interactions with them,” and I need a verb that takes a direct object, because the preposition is too unwieldy.

And do I need the “allegedly”?

Hmm, perhaps I could switch the subject of the relative characteristic clause:

“They’re too brutish to participate in meaningful conversation, and too human to kill and eat.”

No, that’s confusing.

Argh.