Earthquake pets: To save or not to save?

There's one scene in Hollywood disaster movies I've always hated: Oblivious to death and chaos all around and at great peril to himself and others, the hero jumps to the rescue of his own pet.

It must have been a nice touch of humanitarianism when it was first depicted on the big screen.

But by the end of the millennium, it had become so trite it was an inevitable laughing stock.