What is an animal's life worth?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/03/16/moneytales031609.DTL

I was reading this article today on SF Chronicle and it kind of upset me. Someone had commented "It's nice to see that this woman...yada yada...helps the animals, but would she do the same thing for fellow human beings?"

Now everyone is entitled to their own opinion...and here goes mine....Domesticated animals are basically helpless. When someone refuses to spay/neuter their cat or dog, and said pet goes out and creates a litter, that is the fault of the humans. Animals don't have control over their instincts.

Regarding humans: if you are a human, and you don't have health insurance, you're homeless, etc....I have compassion but at the same time...we are in control of our situation. If you are homeless/jobless because you're a junkie...basically that's nobody's fault but your own. If you're homeless because your house burned down your situation may be different.

Also humans don't tend to have a lot of gratitude. When you give a bum a dollar, they usually mumble "thanks", say nothing at all, or look at the dollar and then look at you like YOU are the asshole. In my rescue experience, animals show lots more gratitude and understanding....when I took in kittens last year who were starving, weak and dirty, they purred and purred when I washed them with a warm cloth, dropper-fed them, and played with them. They realized that I was helping them and they showed appreciation. Humans very often don't act like this. That's not to say all humans OR all animals but in most cases....when you help a human, they often just keep putting their hand out instead of getting their shit together.

Now this woman may have gone a little far...she found a cat that had been hit by a car and was suffering by the roadside. She took it to the vet and paid for it to be kept alive. I would definitely pull over and pick up a cat or dog that had been hit and left to die....and take it to the vet, but depending on the cost I might have to opt for euthanasia. Regardless I would never just leave a suffering animal by the side of the road...that's just awful and deplorable behavior on the part of us humans.

That's my big speech for the day...I hate it how people always act like compassionate animal lovers are nutcases....it's a generalization that's mean and untrue (most of the time).