[XtRaVa]

I asked a few people this question, and the majority of answers were something along the lines of: "Because a dog is cute and cant defend itself".

Thats fair enough, but then I said to them: "Yeah but a dogs just an animal of low intelligence, wheras a person is a human being, with much more to live for, and think about his family and friends who it will all cause so much pain to".

Then they all realised it made no sense to be more disturbed or upset about the dog. They'd still be more upset to see a dead dog, as would most people, but now they'd have no explanation as to why.