I'm /guessing/ the low-def images are to save server space because they probably take up a lot when they're hi-def. I dunno, just assuming.
Is there any way that would work that would get the high-quality images more screen time? Maybe using them in the archives? That would only be one image per pet right? As nice as it would be to have the high quality images in the groups I can see how that would cause problems.
I just think its really a shame that these pets lose so much quality to become smaller file sizes. Markings get blurred, details get lost. The transparency is probably a lot of that, but I'd trade the transparency for the quality any day. Just some examples below:




