There are many, many factors that go into deciding, it's not as simple as "HURR DURR HOOMANZ BE SPESHUL! HOOMAN EVERTIEM!"
I agree. maybe that's some people's positions but that's not my take on it. my take is that in general, the average person is more important than a dog. there are outlier cases where the person isn't worth saving cause they deserve to die anyway. but that's my criteria - does that person deserve to die? if not, then they should be saved over a dog
This is were the nuance gets complicated.
Say you have a dog. You're a middle aged woman, with no friends or close relatives. Your dog is your life, as sad as it is. You're your dog's life too, you two have a close bond.
It's not surprising to imagine that such a woman would choose her life companion (that totally average dog who happens to love her and live with her for say, 14 to 17 years) rather than the mail guy who is a dick, gives her the side eye and always damages her mail (so, a pretty average mail man and person).
Is she wrong? I don't know, but the nuance is there.