There has always been a battle over which is better, dogs or cats. However, there has never been a clear winner, and I don’t believe there ever will be because it is most definitely subjective. There are many reasons why it is subjective, but one factor that heavily plays into this is your mental health.
Through everything that has ever happened that has something to do with humans, something has always stuck with us, and that thing is pets. According to Google Arts & Culture, the first pet was roughly 2.5 million years ago, according to Britanica, and that was in the Paleolithic age, which is also known as the Stone Age. I almost guarantee you that if you named a famous person, they would more than likely have had a pet. Henry the IV, who was a French king in 1399, had two pet dogs. Even the famous war general Napoleon had a pet dog. Even the first president of the United States had a dog. But just like anything that has survived millions of years, scientists studied them, and they found many things, but the thing that they found that will be talked about is their mental health benefits. It can be positive or negative, but it is usually positive because when a human interacts with a pet, it releases a chemical called oxycontin, which makes you happy, like serotonin and dopamine.
According to UC Davis Health, dogs can help prevent depression despite the fact that they have a lower lifespan, with them living from 10 to 13 years and cats living from 13 to 20 years. You may have even heard, “Dogs are man’s best friend,” and they say that because they can help prevent depression. Dogs can also have negative mental health effects, but their negative mental health is actually kind of sweet, weirdly enough. The most common negative mental health affect is when you go somewhere for a long amount of time and you have a separation issue, which can turn into a separation issue for something that’s not a dog. And if you have ever watched a soldier come home from the army to his dog and felt a happy emotion, then you probably have felt the effects of a dog despite not having one. There are even games where you can have pets, and it can still give you the same benefits as Minecraft, where there are all sorts of things you can have for pets, like cats and dogs. Some people even cry or get upset when their pet in a video game dies, which is odd because it’s not real.
Many people think that cats are nothing but a nuisance and destructive. But when I did some research, I found out that despite their stereotypes, and according to AKC Reunite, they can actually decrease stress. This is because of their soft purrs that they make, and many people like how fluffy they are, so it calms them. This serves as a sort of pause in their day where they can be as calm as their cat. But fewer people own cats than dogs, and more people also have more stress than depression, which might be because many people don’t have cats. Although they do have positive mental health effects, just like everything else, they also have negative mental health effects. Just like any other pet, they need to be taken care of, and cats can be stressful in some situations. They can be stressed by scratching furniture or meowing loudly, especially when they get sick and you have to spend a lot of money so they can feel better. So if you want to get a cat, you should probably be aware of the pros and cons.
And just like everything else, people have certain opinions and notice things. I interviewed two people; one is a student who wished to remain anonymous, and the other is a behavior analyst who also wished to remain anonymous. When I asked the student, they said that when they had their one cat and two dogs, they felt more stressed than depressed. Which does make sense since they have double the amount of dogs as cats. The other person I interviewed was another person who wished to remain anonymous, and they are a BCBA, which stands for “Board Certified Behavior Analyst,” and when I asked them the question if they see that dogs and cats do have an affect on mental health, they said that they do notice it. They even confirmed that they see that types of animals seem to affect mental health in several different ways. But when I asked if they saw that dogs help with being more happy and if cats make one less stressed, they said that they did notice that. They also have two cats at home, and when they get stressed, the cats can easily calm them down.
You might be wondering, since dogs and cats can affect your mental health, can other pets? Well, the answer is yes. Even things like parrots can affect your mental health. Of course they also have their disadvantages, just like anything else. To be fair though, almost everything that has ever existed can most likely affect your mental health, whether it affects it negatively or positively, even things you were not alive for.
In conclusion, there still is no answer to if cats or dogs are better, and I don’t think there ever will be. It can depend on your mental health or just if you like how they look, and this is not saying that if you have a dog, you have depression or something, but just if you do, they can help, and if they help, you are more likely to like them more than the other. So if you’re currently looking for a pet to adopt, think about what you need for your mental health and look up what pet reduces whatever mental illness you have, and then you will have an idea of what you want.
