“Do you think that doing one keeps people from doing the other?” Absolutely.
Why didn’t you adopt six kids instead?
Don’t worry, I am just kidding. But I’m serious about the point. Time and money are limited commodities. When you expend either on one thing, you are taking it away from something else.
One person is literally more valuable than all the pets in the world, for the one person was designed for communion with God. The animals are natural resources, and one of their “resource values” is as companions to the flesh we occupy while we spend our short time on this planet. They die and become plant/worm food. For humans though, only the body we occupy dies.
Of course I place more value on human life than I do animal life, that is not even in question.
I ask God to send me children (I didn’t specify a number) and he sent me 3, if he had wanted me to raise more he would have sent them. I would have been open to them. I have animals for my own pleasure and they bring me great joy. I have picked up strays all my life.