That would not have been my first thought after reading "the well-being of humans should be more important than an animal" - I'd've thought "oh shit, they just triggered all the urban dwelling armchair economists".
On the other hand, I suspect the trend you describe at least somewhat exists, and you're suffering from the human brain being an overactive pattern matcher in any given specific case rather than being entirely wrong about the general case.
I gave my guess as to who was downvoting and/or angrily replying to your post, as a counterpoint to bsder's guess as to who said people are.
I also meant to type "armchair environmentalists" but too much marginal revolution and too little coffee apparently made me braino.
Rural romanian sensibilities versus US urban dwelling archair environmentalist would totally explain the attacks on you to me - and now seems even more plausible than "labour versus capital" as the underlying cause.
On the other hand, I suspect the trend you describe at least somewhat exists, and you're suffering from the human brain being an overactive pattern matcher in any given specific case rather than being entirely wrong about the general case.