I certainly would. My dog would mean more to me than some random person I dont know or have any connection to. Simply being a member of the same species isnt enough for me. To me it would be like choosing between a stranger and a friend or relative. If I can only save one Im going to go for the friend or relative before the stranger as that person means more to me.
I dont really see anything wrong with what the guy did. Given his weight and how long he was lost he and the dog were probably looking at certain death. So either way the dog was probably going to die. If its going to die it might as well die in a useful way. If the dog had starved to death it probably would have been useless. It also would have been a slower and more painful death. Im a vegetarian but in a life or death scenario Id probably eat anything. The killing would be the hard part to me, not the eating.
The fact that you would choose your dog over a human being with relatives, friends, a community, speaks to the kind of blind selfishness that is ever creeping in our society. (I know, that sounds harsh, and I'm not trying to slag on you, just be frank about the way I see it on a society level)
I love my dog fiercely, but it is an artificial arrangement born out of a level of entitlement that we are only blessed to have, due to the fact that humanity has throughout the history of our evolution, valued other humans.
When I worked afternoons or midnights- the train some times blew and off they would go- I would also give a howl at times and listen to them as they passed it on and on.
I used to live just off of 153rd Ave, a major emergency route. North of my house was a large empty lot that was still home to deer, coyotes, and gophers galore. The coyotes were especially interesting, because they could hear emergency sirens long before any of us could, and when their howling would start up, you'd know an emergency vehicle wasn't far behind.
