People are all freaking out about the guy who tried to euthanize his "gay" dog.

It's because the story is pretty ridiculous and people are going 'WTF?'

I get that the story is ridiculous, and people are thinking "WTF" about it, and it's a shocking example of stupidity.

I just don't understand what makes this story MORE of a shocking, ridiculous example of stupidity than all the other ones.

And I know Gay Rights is a hot button issue right now, but there are zillions of gay rights stories centering on human stupidity floating around.

Is it that it's a combination of a sad heartless-human-wrongs-cute-animal-for-dumb-reason story and a gay rights story at the same time? That seems like it could make an article blow up.

It's not MORE shocking or ridiculous, it's just more publicized.

There isn't enough time in the day for every single story out there to get this much publicity. Some do, some don't. There isn't necessarily a reason behind it. Maybe some savvy internet marketing person really got the story out there, or maybe it was random chance. But there probably isn't any deeper meaning to be found in it than that.

ETA: It's the same as asking... Why does one cute cat video on YouTube go viral and another doesn't? It's just dumb chance.