It’s a close call between cats and dogs, in this part of the world anyway. People keep all sorts of pets, from rabbits to chickens to lizards (I have a friend in America that has a pet skunk! They removed the gland that causes the stink, and he’s a lovely pet!), but cats and dogs just outnumber the lot of them combined. Pet cats and dogs actually outnumber children in the USA by about 4 to 1!
There are more pet cats in the world, but that’s because one family often has several cats where it’s less common to have more than one dog in a house.
I’m very much a dog person, so I like to think since more families have dogs than cats (even though the ones with cats usually have lots of cats), that dogs win :p
It’s not like that everywhere though. Dogs are very unpopular in parts of the Middle East, and in Egypt cats used to be seen as gods and sacred animals and got treated like royalty. There are even a few countries where people prefer to have a monkey as a pet 🙂
As to WHY these pets are so loved… It depends on the pet and the person. People who prefer dogs say it’s because dogs are so loyal and quick to show affection, where as cat-lovers really like how independent cats are, and might see dogs as too needy. Pets have a whole load of uses too. Dogs are great guardians, once they become part of a family they act like bodyguards. Cats are great for hunting and killing small vermin like rats and mice, which might carry disease and can make your house stink if they get in.
Both animals love to play, but not everyone is able to keep up with a dog that needs to run a lot, they’d prefer a cat who can chase a little bell or the dot from a laser pointer. either way, pets have been shown by scientists to be really good forms of therapy for the ill!
So there are many reasons why people love their pets, and the most loved pets are cats and/or dogs 🙂
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