Well, regardless of the situation, here's the basic problem: is a human stranger or a beloved pet more valuable to you?

I would choose the human because a human provides more value to the world at large than does a pet to me personally.

I'm guessing several people would choose the pet because they don't highly value human strangers.

I think it's a question of personal values and not of ethics or religion.

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And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
-Walt Whitman