To me, it is the most horrific thought imaginable (save for extreme eternal torture, yada yada) to have my consciousness permanently extinguished... I want to experience the Universe and eat pie for as long as possible! And I would assume most other people do, too. Therefore, my pet would have to go. Unless I have a chimp or a dolphin for a pet, it doesn't have personality in the same way as humans do, and even a pet chimp would be worth less than a human life obviously.
As for the "oh boohoo you bought a dog instead of saving people", you could make the same argument for almost any household object. You hardly need more than an empty flat and a bowl or rice and water a day to survive, so why not give away everything you have to save those lives? In the end it comes down to personal values and what you're willing to give up to help others. Thing is, you cannot really be held directly responsible for people dying of hunger in Africa, etc, and indirect responsibility is a fuzzy concept at best. I didn't make the choice to be born to wealth in a world where others are poor and dying, did I? I may have compassion but no direct duty/responsibility. Whereas you are directly responsible for the death of the person you choose to kill instead of your pet. Depending on the circumstances you could get tried for manslaughter or even murder (if you must kill Jane/John D by your own hands - in which case btw I think many would reconsider).
I had a thought about a short movie regarding a twist on this idea at one time. Say, you'd be given a billion dollars if you pushed a small red button that would randomly choose one person of the world's seven billion residents to be killed painlessly and without suspicion. The motives of the donator are irrelevant, as is the source of his powers. You'd only know that the outcome is certain if you press the button: random person killed, one billion dollars on your bank account (without suspicions either - don't ask me, he's a genie! Again, such considerations are irrelevant to the question at hand.) I dare say almost everyone on Earth would push the button. After all, with that billion dollars - think about how many persons you could save! Even if it were a 100 persons - you could save many, many more. And so on and so forth. I may make a thread on this later on, if it's not done already. I suspect that it is though.
The movie would end after the protagonist had considered every possible moral system, made the rational final decision, pushes the button - and yes, you guessed correctly, keels over in his chair, dead by his own hand and its greedy devices.
You could say, struck down by God's finger (whether He exists or not, although if genies do then chances are that JHWH does too
).
![[pissed]](/images/smilies/pissed.gif "Pissed [pissed]")
A cow is replaceable. A dog that is intelligent and has a distinct personality is NOT! 
Surely you can do better than that. 
