<p>Speciesism designates a belief that humans should be treated as morally superior to other animals, disregarding the ability of non-human animals to suffer. In this research, we sought to investigate the relationship between the Dark Tetrad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism) and attitudes toward non-human animals, as well as whether this relationship is mediated by empathy and social dominance orientation/right-wing authoritarianism. In Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 369), controlling for age, sex, and educational level, speciesism was predicted by psychopathy and sadism. Prosocial intentions toward animals were also predicted by psychopathy, while meat consumption was only marginally related to Machiavellianism. In Study 2 (<i>N</i> = 234), we examined whether affective, cognitive, and motivational empathy, as well as general social attitudes, mediated the relationships between psychopathy, sadism, and speciesism. Psychopathy emerged as the most important distal predictor, with social dominance orientation fully mediating this link. All aspects of empathy had direct and indirect effects on speciesism via social dominance orientation. The findings suggest that the Dark Tetrad of personality has systematic ties to attitudes toward animals. However, the basic social and ideological attitudes are the more proximal predictors. These findings are also relevant to the literature on the link between violence toward animals and violence toward humans.</p>