I don't have any pets, because I'm not particularly fond of animals, or don't feel the need to have one, or whatever... but if I did, I'd choose the animal over the human.

I find it terribly hard to empathise with somebody I don't know. I might feel for their situation, depending on the severity, but if it was my own pet, who I loved, I'd go with the thing that gives me pleasure in my life, of which I suspect I only have one.