Disaster area? Talk about a loaded sentiment.
Is that what you think when you go outside, go scuba diving, or hike in the mountains? What a mess!?
Not a loaded sentiment at all. If, as you maintain, God created everything around us - the super designer of all, then he should be the best engineer in the business. Imagine the future fortunes of a human car designer who proudly boasted that 99.99% of all his designs were doomed to eventual failure. How long do you think he'd hold a licence to design?
When I "go outside, scuba dive or look at the mountains" my thoughts are something like "Isn't it amazing we live in this world where evolution produces the effects we see - not by conscious effort - just by natural laws unfolding as they do." Why should there have to be this 'God' tag attached to everything? There's not a shred of evidence for it at all.
Why does water beautifully fill the exact shape of the pothole in which it collects? Is the pothole made exactly for the water? Or does the water conform to the existing pothole? Does life on earth 'fit' its planet because - like the water it conforms naturally? ( Unless you think God is moulding the water to fit the pothole - which I wouldn't be surprised if you do think that - the theologian Richard Swinbourne believes that God is controlling every proton, electron, neutron - hell even the more basic quarks for that matter- in the entire universe - all at the same time - that's some GOD !!)
Certainly groups of animals have died off.
By "groups' do you mean "species"? If so, the number of species that have died off conservatively measure into the tens of millions - one hell of a design failure rate I'd say. If 'group' doesn't mean 'species' for you be aware that this is an old EvC topic and you might want to visit other threads where this is discussed.
Regarding animal suffering - you are looking at it from a human perspective. You are reading your ideas of human suffering into the animal kingdom.
Ah - so you DO believe that animals can't suffer pain or distress.....how interesting!