ValentinaVVV,
Our son was kind to animals, we thought. It turned out he was touching them in ways he liked. It was lucky the animals were okay with it. Once his mother got hurt physically and was showing it and he said, "that didn't hurt you, it didn't hit hard enough." He could not see that she was in real pain. He came to a conclusion about the situation without considering her experience, the experience she was having.

If your son is asking how they feel, that's not empathy. Maybe it's a precursor to it, that he's even concerned about how they feel. Our son was constantly arguing that other people needed to change their behavior because they weren't listening to him. He never, still doesn't, think he ought to change if his behavior is disturbing for others. He says it's their problem.