I've had both Cats and Dogs in large quantities. All said, my cats were about 10 times more violent, often unprovoked (or punishment for overpetting, or tickling it
) and often less than one fifth the size of the dogs. Both types of animals (and all the others including rodents and birds) recieved equal love and training.
Just to address some nonsense in this thread:
Cats can be worse than dogs in the odor department. Though properly trained to use the litter box, one particular cat found it suitible punishment to crap in my toy and comic boxes. The odor of cat feces can be quite offensive when used offensively. When the cat was not in a foul mood, it would resume normal crapping formation.
Dogs are smelly when untended, but then, that's like saying monkey's grab things, and birds fly. Dogs have powerfull body odor to find and identify one another with in the wild, common cats prefer solitude, though their huge cousins are just as smelly, despite self cleaning, thanks to prides which use the same method of identification.
Saying that a dog doesn't clean it's self is huge nonsense; all of my dogs were just as attentive to themselves and other dogs in the house with cleaning as the cats. Again, a natural function of the animal is being called cause for lack of grooming, which is not only pure ignorance, it shows how little you have actually observed dogs.
Cats and Dogs are both vicious predators in the wild, neither is more likely to attack you. Check your facts, cats are actually better predators than dogs. Do effecient killing machines sharpen their tools by purring in your lap? No. Dogs and Cats both attack when cornered and uncomfortable. If you haven't raised the animal, and try and touch it when you haven't been introduced, you will be attacked. Period.
Beware of Animal. Dog is big enough to kill you, cat is not, but would if it could. Keep in mind that a cat's natural weapons are meant to eviscerate or choke. A common housecat cannot bite around your windpipe, nor can it cut through your abdominal wall with it's claws. A dog's natural weapons are meant for crushing the spine, ripping the throat, and generally tearing you apart. The difference is, that there are huge domestic dogs weighing up to 120 lbs. A dog that large could, in theory, take down a huge pack animal with a running start. You are easily overpowered as well. What your interesting statistics show, Alea, is that cats are generally smaller than dogs, not that Dogs are more vicious. How about some statistics on toy, miniature, and small dog attacks, which all fall in the range of cat weight/mass? You won't find them, because like the diminuitive cat, no one reports a scrape to the local animal control officials so the animal can be terminated. You have fallen for the vicious combo of myth and falsified "facts" that do not, and cannot cover all the bases involved in such an undertaking. No statistic there devides dog weights/masses into categories for proper scruitiny, which can range in weight from 5 lbs to 150 lbs. That is a huge thing to overlook in a statistic. I bet the deaths from dog attacks under the 20lb collumn reads zero, the same as the average house cat.
All animals are vicious. My hamster was vicious, more so than my dogs or cats. I had more hamster bites than cat clawings or dog bites.
Dogs do not randomly become vicious, I have raised many breeds, including two "violent" ones, neither animal ever bit a human. These people who claim that they raised the dog right don't know their "love" from their "beating with a book when the dog pissed on the carpet because they were too lazy to walk the dog". You could use this point to attack the self sufficiency of dogs, but I also point out that a cat will stop using it's litter box if you don't clean it out, thus releiving its self in whatever resembles a box.
Cats shed, and shed as bad as dogs. Both animals have breeds with excessive hair replacement during season change. If you disagree, too bad, you are wrong: I speak from experience.
Dogs are actually smarter than cats by brain mass . . . I had a dog that could open doors, imitate exercises and do numerous other tricks. Most of them, the dog learned on it's own. I had a second dog which could also open doors, this dog learned independantly from the first. I had a third dog which had gone blind and painstakingly remembered the house, mapped fully in it's mind. This is not to say that cats do not posses cunning, they do. Cats show problemsolving abilities as do dogs, neither posses true cognitive intelligence. If smart's your dish, get a pig, they're smarter than either.
As pointed out, cats are not hairball factories.
As pointed out, dogs do not always drool.
Predatorial animals have rot breath, even cats. Why do house cats not have it? Because of what they eat. Dog food contains horsemeat, cat food contains fish and chicken
in much smaller amounts.
Smell a 100lb mountain lion's breath, I bet you wish you had a dog.
Dogs bark, cats meow, cows moo, congratulations, you graduate kindergarten. Animals make noise, cats are quieter, but not ninja. Both sit on your face and make their noise at 5am to wake you up for breakfast. Not yours, theirs. Dogs bark when someone comes to the door, big deal. If you don't like the sound, that's your opinion, not a definitive up or down point for the animal. You probably piss of your cat when you talk cuddy wuddles to it, I piss of my dog when I tell it to **** off during meal time . . . but you know that's their opinion right?
Pit Bulls are not bought because they are cute and remind you of Spudz McKenzie, people buy and breed these animals to make them violent and scary. These same jackasses did this to German Shepherds, Doberman Pinchers, and Rottweilers in the decades before pit bull fame. All of these animals were classified as dangerous then, and are now know to be absolutely fine. Blame idiotic humans who know a 20lb cat can't scare off people with "Beware of Cat", they are looking to make a legal animal deadly.
Renal Dysfunction is common in all old animals, including humans. Schpyncters (sp?) go, and thus accidents happen. Cats, dogs, squirrels, frogs, birds, your grandma . . . it doesn't depend(s
) on which animal, only time. If you've had so many cats, and not one accident has happened, you need a new nose. In fact, many landlords say that cat stains are as common ad dog stains and more difficult to remove. Thanks to the cat's chemical make up, which applies a powerful ammonia content to the urine, your cat stains will live on in your rugs and floor boards long after the dog's non penitrating (though still difficult to remove) urine.
Many, if not most cats, are not generally inside or outside, as are dogs. If you argue otherwise, I would like you to produce the 100% accurate census information you are citing. If not, please stop wasting oxygen.
Declawing a cat is tantimount to defanging a dog. Don't be an ******* and remove parts of your animal. If you don't want to be clawed, don't get a cat.
Weak statistics are weak statistics, "many" is not a subsitiute for percentages and actual population numbers including relational data such as weight, which you will never get.
If a dog does as it's told, like a child, then why would it deign to do the opposite of training "depending" on personality. Cats don't learn tricks because they are unresponsive to reward and punishment. They will precieve any punishment as a hostile act, and any reward as deserved anyway; the snacks were always the cat's to begin with. Dogs geniuinely try to appease their "masters" whom they view as part of the pack, cats generally are inclined to enjoy their pets' hosptiality.
Much the same as smell for dogs, cats are inherently *******s. It's a survival tool, a cat veiws you as an animal that shares it's space and resources. A few days of observing big cat behavior will show you that these animals are number one in their own books no matter how much you love them. They don't love you, they love your resources because it's hardcoded into their behavior from birth and cannot be changed. Though, perhaps Alea has trained her cats to go against their natural behavior? I doubt it.
Flaming
is actually a poor replacement for proper argument.
FACT: Illiteracy is a growing problem in the youth of our nation. Have some pride; people who speak english as a second language speak it better than inner city youth raised on "ebonics". Don't like it? Make a difference and
choose not to sound ignorant. As Alea stated for herself; I don't proofread my posts, I simply know my grammar and write properly (for the most part) the first time. She wasn't being obsessive compulsive *****, she was pointing out that you make baby George Washington cry . . . be proud of your language, and have ebonics as your second.
Please be more careful when arguing . . . (to dog and cat lovers) . . . because your poor bull**** is all over your shedding coats.
