Are we animals???

I was watching this animal rescue show on one of the nature channels on tv. It's so depressing to see in what condition house pets are sometimes kept. Why do people think they're the lords of creation? They take animals as pets when nobody is forcing them to, and then don't feed them or look after them, or worse, are cruel to them, and make them wish they'd never been born! What gives us the right to do that? Animals are made for love, the only beings in the world capable of unconditional silent devotion! They're like children that trust us and depend on us for everything! It is NOT OK to mistreat them! Thank God somebody's monitoring the situation and taking maltreated animals away from their "owners".
I loved my dog and I miss him every day. He was the most beautiful brindle boxer that was specially hiding in a hell-hole for us to rescue. He had three different kinds of worms when we got him, as well as near-starvation, asthma and slight starvation-related muscular under-development similar to rickets. Boxers don't do so well in a hot country like India. It took us nearly six months to get him completely healthy again, and he was faithfully ours for the rest of his shorter-than-usual life. Such a beautiful dog, and so naughty! He conquered our hearts and ruled our lives. He had the best blanket in the house but would only wait till Dad dozed off to jump up slyly onto his bed. If you made a strange noise that he'd never heard before, he'd cock his head around from side to side trying to figure out what the matter with you was. He was so patient that once when I didn't see him behind me and stepped back onto his toe, the poor thing went and hid but never retaliated in any way. Would you be able to do that? A darling, darling boy that left a space in our family, our lives, our hearts that we will never be able to fill again. If you think he was just an animal, you seriously need to get one yourself. Most likely you'll be talking to your pet within a month. :)
I want to get another dog, but we're here in this country only temporarily and I don't know what it would involve to take him back with us to a country with a very different climate. And if we're not able to take him/her, it would just break my heart. So I wait... But God, I miss having that interaction. It's on another level, a more basic, instinctive level, something we can't achieve with humans because they're too developed.