While the relation between human directed empathy (HDE) and animal directed empathy (ADE) has been reported as relatively weak, very little is known on factors underpinning the development of the later. We explored predictive models of HDE and ADE regressing them on gender, religion, diet, having pets and belonging to NGO charities, and we also compared portuguese with english speaking people as a proxy of culturally distinct populations. An online survey was conducted and included portuguese and english versions of measures of HDE and ADE, as well as questions targeted at the predictive variables. Results indicated gender as the single predictor of human directed empathy in the "Portuguese" group whereas both gender and having pets predicted empathy towards animals in both groups. NGO affiliation is a predictor of empathy towards animals in the portuguese but not in the english group, where a vegetarian/vegan diet is the strongest predictor.