Kirsten, first of all let me tell you how proud I am of you and that you have done a marvelous job holding your ground in the conversation.

If anything, your exchange with the person from Tunisia underscores the divide between industrialized and developing countries, a point that others in this thread have also mentioned. Her attitude, unfortunately, is one shared by most people in her situation. I should know about this too, being an immigrant from a "developing" nation in Southeast Asia. Where I came from, poverty afflicted 75% of the population, and spoiling one's pets, never mind spending the money to spay or neuter them, was seen as an unnecessary indulgence. Some of our friends and neighbors back in the old country couldn't understand why we fed stray cats when we hardly had enough money to put food on the table. (I guess we were crazy.)

I was fortunate enough to have immigrated with my family to the States 20 years ago; at least here, finding the resources, financial or otherwise, to take care of one's pets does not have to turn into a discussion of whether you end up depriving your family of food in the process.

I still think about the strays in the neighborhood we left 20 years ago, and I end up feeling depressed that were it not for the kindness of strangers, they would all fall victim eventually to the "natural selection" your acquaintance described.

Let's hope that in our lifetime, we will see the economic conditions in these "developing" nations improve to the point that caring for feral animals will no longer be considered an unnecessary indulgence.