What is the significance of the command to strike the lizard and its virtue?

Question:
Does the hadith regarding the lizard not indicate that animals have an intention of good or evil?

Answer:
This was mentioned regarding the lizard, and Allah inspired it with certain things , but it is not accountable. However, some of them are malicious, and Allah commanded their killing, just as the vicious dog is killed, just as the snake and the scorpion are killed, and the like of that; because of the malice, evil, and harm in them, and they are not accountable.
Q: Who says that striking it with the hand is more rewarding than striking it with a shoe or the like?
The Shaykh: No, that has no basis. The point is to strike it with whatever kills it, with a stick or otherwise.
Q: Some people say that animals do not have intellect?
The Shaykh: They have an intellect befitting them. They have intellects befitting them. The animal intellect befits it; it understands, drinks, eats, and mates, and so on.
Q: Regarding the reward for the second strike?
The Shaykh: As the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said; the first strike is better, the second is less than that, and the third is less than that. The point in this is the encouragement to be diligent in striking; that is the intent.
Q: What was mentioned regarding seventy and fifty?
The Shaykh: I do not remember anything but three.