And who are we to say they are wrong? The problem isn't that people care too much about their pets: it's that we don't care enough about human beings we've never met.
And it's a hard problem to solve, because it's like a wetware problem, and we are hard to upgrade.
So do I let them continue as before and be a hypocrite by valuing fake internet points more than human lives?
most people have to work to accumulate money. once they've done so, they are a lot more likely to spend it on people and animals they know and love than some people on the other side of the world they've never met. I don't think this is inherently wrong.
Typical selfish human response.
At the same time complains like the OP is just hypocrisy, since we've spent a lot of money in things we don't need (a simple smartphone) while we can feed a family of the 3rd world for 1/2 year with the same money.
And (not trolling and not personal) I still prefer my pets' lives over yours, as many of the users here would prefer their pets over the life of a random dude on the internet (like mine).
But this doesn't mean that we should stop caring about our pets. I believe that the initial statement (human life > pet life) is wrong since we should all be caring about all living things (maybe?).
You don’t get to make that decision for anyone else.