Thanks for your comment.
It took us some time as a culture to see animals as family (especially dogs, they being the most common pet). I remember when I was a kid, it was rare to hear of someone taking a dog to an animal doctor. Animals healed themselves or were sacrificed, if the injury or disease was too severe; that was the mentality.
Prosperity helped make the transition; now the severe economic crisis has made us go back to the times when only a few things mattered, animals not being one of them. We have gotten to a point where people abandon their own children because they have to migrate, young mothers abandon their babies in hospitals or worse yet in dumpsters because they can't afford to take care of them.
Leaving loved ones behind starts becoming "normal", expected, even encouraged.
We individually do our best to keep our humanity alive, but good will is not always enough.