I can't agree with you. I sort of hate a lot of people, and the older I get, the more likely I am on a day to day basis to think of them as bugs and dismiss them entirely. This is also due to my job and some of the awful people I work with, which I guess is a bad thing... but what to do? I generally agree with you in principle, because obviously people are more important when you get down to it, but I find it a hard thing to put into practice when I see people live without any concern for anything around them. I'm infuriated every day by people who live life with no regard to anyone but themselves. Even I, who hate most of them, will still treat them with respect more often than not because that's the way one should live, and these people, who would absolutely fall over and die if their precious social lives were ever compromised, who need other people in every way to survive because they're worthless and utterly reliant on everyone else for everything, have the audacity to be so self-absorbed they won't even think twice about making other people uncomfortable if it means they can remain comfortable, about using people they view as peers for their own ends, about destroying the environment just because it's easier than taking steps to prevent it (and being lazy never gets in the way of convenience, that hateful fucking thing).
So yeah, it's hard for me to really share your view on a deeper level. I hear what you're saying, and you're probably more right than I am, since there's no way somebody that's lost faith as bad as I have could possibly be right, and I'm probably just becoming more and more pissy and awful the older I get... but that's why it's hard for me to side with people. I really don't agree with PETA either, but there's also something about their extremism that sometimes makes me smile a bitter little smile inside. And while it wouldn't be because I'm angry about them eating meat, there are times when I would dearly love to pelt people with meat products or dump buckets of pig's blood on their heads.
That said, I naturally do gravitate toward animals. I've developed relationships with them, and when you spend a lot of time doing that, it's hard to ignore how human they can be. I can't possibly abide by people in other countries eating dogs, not only because the slaughterhouses are disgusting and the meat spreads a lot of disease which ultimately just contributes to the mortality rates of poor people who eat that kind of thing, but because the conditions are ridiculously cruel, and I've been close to many dogs and felt love from them. Sympathy, at times. Friendship. You can't tell me that it's right to harvest them as food for any reason, and if anyone ever says that in front of me antagonistically, I will punch them in the face. I'll break their nose and be happy about it.
