Harambe: What would Jesus do?

Much talk about a gorilla killed to save a boy has been in the news. Normally, I try to stay out of the news, but I remembered this story from the Gospels and figured I would remind us of it.

“When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?’ Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, ‘If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ And he said to them, ‘Go then!’ They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned.” – Matthew 8:28-32

In this version according to Matthew, Jesus valued these two individuals that He drove out the demons from them. However, He allowed the demons to enter into the swine. Surely, Jesus cared for His creation, but it shows the hierarchy that He cares for them. He did not die on the cross to save the pigs. He came to save humans.

In Mark’s longer account of the story, the swineherd is numbered ‘about two thousand’ and there is only one demoniac. Again, He cared for His creation, but first and foremost for those who were created in the ‘image and likeness’ of God. Both accounts of the story have the townspeople asking Jesus to leave. Are they mad that He allowed the swineherd to die? That He valued human life more than that of a herd of animals?