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đŸ¶ đŸ± Are Cats Actually More Popular Than Dogs?

There's actual science to answer this...

Author

Bryan Reisberg
November 02, 2023

New Study Confirms: Dogs Rule. Cats Drool.

But what does this say about the pet industry?

A new study published in Frontiers suggests dog owners love their dogs more than cat owners love their cats.

The study led by Dr. Peter SandĂže from the University of Copenhagen aimed to investigate whether dogs receive more care and attention compared to cats. Previous studies have suggested that pet owners might be less emotionally attached to and less willing to invest in the healthcare of cats compared to dogs, potentially due to differences in behavior. However, these studies often suffer from non-representative samples and do not account for potential cultural variations in pet owner attitudes, and Dr. SandĂže's team sought to address these gaps in understanding.

The respondents answered questions on their pet health insurance, willingness to pay for life-saving treatments, and emotional attachment to the animals measured through what's known as the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale.

“We and others have found that people are willing to spend much less on their cats than on their dogs,” said Sandþe, first author of the study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.”

The study’s findings included higher attachment scores for dogs, more frequent insurance for dogs, greater expectations for available treatment options for dogs, and a willingness to pay more for dog treatments.

The researchers suggest that there could be several underlying factors contributing to this phenomenon. For instance, dogs typically require more attention and affection from their owners, whereas cat behavior is often characterized as more independent and solitary in nature.  This is also supported by the amount of money we’re currently spending on our pets:

According to Sandþe, “We wanted to find out whether cats could eventually end up having the same high status as dogs do today.”  The broad implications of a study like this on the pet industry are intriguing.  We know pet spending is on the rise, especially after the pandemic.

According to MarketWatch, Americans spent $136.8 billion on their pets in 2022, up from $123.6 billion in 2021. The APPA expects pet spending to keep its year-over-year increase, projected to hit $143.6 billion in 2023.

But how does that break down on dogs vs. cats?  According to Forbes, dogs are still outpacing cats in terms of popularity:

  • Dogs are more popular than cats in the U.S. As of 2022, 44.5% of U.S. households own dogs, and 29% of households own cats.

  • Between 2016 and 2022, the percentage of U.S. households who own dogs increased by 6.1 percentage points, from 38.4% to 44.5%, while the percentage of households that own cats increased by 4 percentage points, from 25% to 29%.

Based on this data alone, dogs are not just more popular than cats, dog owners also spend more on their pets than cat owners.  But do dog owners actually love their dogs more than cat owners love their cats? If you measure love in time and money, then the answer is probably yes.  But that’s absurd! As an owner of both dogs and cats, I don’t love one more than the other. I do, however, spend a lot more time with and money on my dog


Besides, I think my cat hates me.  I can’t be sure
 but he probably hates me.

Which do you prefer?

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How to Do that Pixar Pet AI Trend Taking Over Instagram

I know, I know.  You’ve seen all these incredible images of everyone’s pets as adorable Pixar characters and you’re wondering
HOW CAN I DO THAT WITH MY PET?!

Well, here you go:

  1. Go to the Bing Image Creator here

  2. Use the search function with a specific request.

    • A good template to use is: “A Disney Pixar-inspired animated movie poster with the title DOG NAME featuring YOUR DOG BREED, COLOR, AND ANY OTHER CHARACTERISTICS. The scene should be set in the distinct digital art style of Pixar, with a focus on character expressions, vibrant colors, and detailed textures that are characteristic of Pixar animation.”  Feel free to describe the background “in NYC” or “on grass” and describe the action in the image.

  3. Wait for the images to load (it can take a few minutes)

The detail is key.  Describe facial expressions, locations, colors, and you can even add people.  Try and be as descriptive as possible. If you don’t like the generated images, try revising your prompt, it always takes a few tries.

The Pet Cloning Conflict

So what’s it like to actually own a cloned pet?

Pet cloning is easily the most controversial topic in the pet community, and has been the subject of increased scrutiny in recent years, largely due to the increased availability and success of pet cloning, alongside the questionable ethics of the practice.

At the center of the controversy is the one company putting cloning on the map: Viagen.  Located in Cedar Park, TX, Viagen is the company that has made pet cloning more common than you think, but with a steep price tag: $50,000.

If you’ve heard of Viagen, it’s because Barbara Streisand most famously (and successfully) worked with Viagen to clone her late dog Sammie in 2018.

I’m not gonna dive into everything I think about pet cloning (tldr: I don’t support it, nor does anyone I know).  It’s essentially a very expensive (and morally questionable) bereavement-coping tool. If you want a great op-ed that gets at the heart of the issue, I recommend Jessica Pierce’s piece in the New York Times.  It highlights the broader ethical and moral implications of cloning pets.

But as someone who is nonetheless fascinated by cloning, I’ve always been curious to ask cloned pet parents: What’s it like?

Well, The Atlantic spoke to several people who had their pets cloned. And here’s what they had to say.

Kelly, a dog trainer in Austin, TX, cloned her late ragdoll cat, Chai, and now lives with Belle.  While Belle looks exactly like Chai, Kelly describes how she “forged a bond with Chai based on very specific experiences: coaxing her out from under the bed when she was scared, gently getting her to swallow her medicine, gaining her trust. With Belle, she doesn’t feel the same connection. She doesn’t just miss the combination of DNA that was Chai; she misses their relationship, which was built on unreplicable memories and experiences.”

Other owners feel like their clone is so similar to their original pet that they hardly need to start over at all. 

West, a construction company owner in Jacksonville, FL was deeply attached to Peanut I, who became his service dog since West is a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair. After 13 years, Peanut I passed, and soon thereafter came Peanut I’s clone, Peanut II.  “It’s like having the same dog,” he told The Atlantic. “It’s unreal.”

The idea of pet cloning feels antithetical to the apparent reason for cloning: to cheat death, and to preserve the memory of your pet by giving it “another” life.  But by cloning a beloved pet (that is visually similar but intrinsically different), aren’t you just overwriting those memories with a new version?

I’ll leave you with a quote from the aforementioned NYT piece from Jessica Pierce:

“Biotech companies that provide cloning services to pet owners are selling an illusion. They are selling a dream of never having to say goodbye. But this is an unhealthy dream, both for the dreamer and for those animals whose work it is to produce these clones. The prospect of losing a pet can be unthinkable, but it is inevitable.”.

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Would be more interesting than 100% of human podcasts right now.