Dave Rosenthal and daughter, Jackie, of Missouri City, Texas, with their dog, Roxy. A poll finds that if people had to choose, some would keep their pets over their significant others.

NEW YORK — Your sweetheart or your pet. Who would you choose to dump if one had to go?

Most current pet owners said they would hold on to their spouse or significant other (84 percent), but a sizable 14 percent picked their pet, according to an AP-Petside.com poll.

Put Sally Roland, 53, of Omaha, Neb., down in the dog-first column. “I’m divorced, so that might explain it,” she joked. The unmarried, like Roland, are more apt to choose their pet over their mate — 25 percent among unmarried pet owners versus 8 percent among the married.

Count Fidel Martinez, 30, of Akron, Ohio, as forever loyal to Killer. That’s his mix-breed, 100-pound rescue dog.

“I would absolutely give up my girlfriend for him,” Martinez said. “I know it sounds insane but I’ve had numerous relationships with women. My dog has never let me down.” For the record: Martinez and Killer have been together for seven years. Martinez and his girlfriend have been together for four. The two-legged pair have no immediate plans to cohabitate, he said, but she does like the dog a lot.

Women are far more apt than men to say the human-pet choice would be a tough one (40 percent among women compared with 26 percent among men). Both genders were equally likely to go with their spouse or significant other, according to the poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications.

There was also no difference between dog and cat owners: 35 percent of each said the choice would be a hard one and more than eight in 10 would choose their spouse.

Giving up a pet for any reason can be really tough — unless you are the owners of Princess the canine escape artist. David Rosenthal and his family in Missouri City, Texas, were ready with what they considered an ideal fenced backyard when they welcomed the 2-year-old American Eskimo from a shelter. Then things went bad.

“She kept getting away,” he said. “She’d dig underneath the fence, sneak out through every little crack.”

Even worse, the 49-year-old Rosenthal discovered the hard way that the bushy sago palm plants in the backyard were poisonous to dogs (and humans, too). Princess sampled them and nearly died. Treatment was $2,000.

“Plus she was nipping at kids,” said Rosenthal, who has three. “We were told it was friendly to kids.” So off Princess went, back to the shelter after a year. “It was sad but we knew there was already somebody there to adopt her.”

The family now has two other rescue dogs.