Now don't act like this phenomenon doesn't exist. People will donate thousands of dollars to aid an injured pet, but an injured black kid without health insurance gets, "Tough luck...that's life in the big city."
A number of people treat animals with more respect and reverence than people. Many often do so out of some self-appointed psychological need to "defend the defenseless," whereas a six-year-old boy -- who ranks as a fellow human and with rights observed by a court system -- can get far less sympathy.
In other words, a lot of people rush to the defense of animals over people because they can personally claim a kind of "lordship" over them, whereas a fellow human being is a potential rival with rival rights and the capacity to hurt them, either physically, financially, or even emotionally. Hence they get much less sympathy, and sympathy is offered more readily to an entity (animals, etc.) that the person feels they can "control" and not feel threatened by.
This is the biggest dirty secret within the animal rights movement that no animal rights group will face up to.