To Leave Behind a Friend - Where is the Humanity?

The disaster, so widespread
In an area already stricken with poverty
An every day thing - doing without
Trying to be a part of the whole, yet wanting sovereignty
Now even pets are lost
Left to die amongst the destroyed remains of the city
As though trash, discarded
Finding no help - no kind of pity
Why is it that people think
That animals are only property for us to own
Put on this earth to be abused or neglected by man?
As we sit upon our self made thrones
They come into our lives offering us love
Companionship - asking for nothing in return
You can scold them, even beat them
And to them your backs turn
Yet they still stay - wanting only
A little sign of love or a kind hand...
Instead we abandon them in the streets
For their undying loyalty they are banned
There in flooded alley ways they are left
To starve, to thirst, and to die
Some use euthanasia to "spare them"
It is a truth disguised with a lie
We only spare ourselves
We are too weak to take a stand
We are too arrogant to even see
The total ignorance of man
Where is the strength to say?
"We either both leave or none at all?"
Where is the honor in fighting for a friend?
Be he human or pet, big or small?
My heart bleeds for those animals
That are alone, lost, and afraid
My eyes shed tears of a deep-felt anguish
For those friends who have been betrayed
It scares me to think that someday
When I am old, frail, poor, and alone
That society may decide to just throw me away
When no longer of use -be euthanized or stoned
And my soul is forever scarred by this undeniable fact
That where as an animal would never abandon those they love
We simply ignore their lives - a sacred gift - and choose to write it off as "less important"
It poses a question: Who are the REAL animals - them or us?