Everyone has an opinion; everyone has a side to argue. It’s a question as old as time itself. Which are better, cats or dogs? One is cute, fluffy and independent, the other quite frankly is a dog. Wouldn’t you rather have a clever independent thinker than a scruffy animal that can’t even be left alone for 10 minutes and is clingier than a new born baby? With cats stealing the hearts of 85.8 million households across the U.S. alone, who is to argue that our feline friends are not the best?

Have you got a spare £1,183 lying around the house? No? Then don’t own a dog. According to ‘This is Money’ that is the annual cost of caring and looking after our precious canines. That amount is roughly five percent of the average person’s yearly income in Britain Dogs can also cost a small fortune to buy with the most loved canine, the Labrador, costing up to the dizzying heights of £850. People can barely feed themselves but still spend hundreds of their small amount of earnings on food for a pet that they would be better off without. The extortionate cost doesn’t even include the hefty vet bills that have to be shelled out each year. With dogs costing an extra £520 for the first year alone and then a further £28 a month just for a check-up, these costs can be further inflated by any sort of virus or injury; just an x-ray can cost up to £200 and surgery an extra £2700. If you are still looking for a fuzzy friend then cats are a much more affordable option, felines only cost £880 which is three percent of the average British annual income and are a quarter of the cost of their canine rivals. Also don’t even think about jetting away on a lovely warm holiday, the cost of kennels has sky rocketed to an extortionate £23.60 per day for only one dog, that adds an extra £330 pounds to fortnight but with cats you can relax whilst you’re away and have a little extra spending money as £154 pounds is all the money needed for two weeks.  They may be called man’s best friend but they certainly aren’t your wallet’s friend. Whilst living in a world of poverty and hunger, can we really afford to look after these hounds?

From us giving them food to us becoming the food, thousands of people every year are being mistaken by these hounds for their dinner. ‘Man killed by cat’, have you ever seen this headline? If not, that may be because it has never happened. With only 66000 people visiting hospital due to accidents with cats in the USA, compared to 885,000 hospitalised by vicious dog attacks and with 55,000 people killed each year, why would anyone wish to defend and keep the latter in their homes. A study also shows that 50% of children will be bitten by a dog before they even reach the tender age of twelve  Allowing these dangerous dogs into our homes is a risk to ourselves as well as our families. In 1991 an act was passed by the UK parliament named the Dangerous Dogs Act which specifies that it is “illegal to own a ‘Specially Controlled Dogs’ without exemption from a court”. Any breed of dog that is specified must be muzzled and kept on a lead in all public places. They must also be registered, neutered, tattooed, microchipped and insured. If any dog is found to be dangerously out of control, the owner shall be taken to court, often with the dog being seized and occasionally without bail. If the dog is seen to be such a danger then it can be put down if the court sees fit. The court also has the ability to imprison the owner of the dog from anywhere between 3 years ,for injury and death to another dog and 14 years, for the death of a person due to the dog, and usually with a hefty fine to pay too. This act was made to try and limit the death and injury to people by these vicious creatures, no similar acts have been passed in any country about cats, surely proving which pet is preferable. One specific group of people that are very in favour of this act are the postal service are the postal service as over 3000 postmen and women are attacked each year in the UK by dogs. This occurrence has become so common that it is even now a cliché now in many forms of media and entertainment. The animals are idiotic enough to get angry over someone putting a piece of paper through their letterbox, this just shows the pure stupidity of these pets.

With dog lovers everywhere arguing that they are more loyal and likely to live with you for life, all I can say to this is, you haven’t met enough cats. In May 2014 a small boy was attacked in his home town in Florida, luckily the boy was saved by his family cat, Tara, who chased off the dog to save the young boy. The video of this amazing feat has gone on to receive over 25 million views and has even made Tara a world renowned hero, she even went on to win the Hero Dog award. Does this example of a cat’s pure bravery and loyalty not prove that our friendly felines are superior? The loyalty of cats is unprecedented and can never be taken away by some malicious, mangy mutt.

You may not have realised yet but dogs take up a lot of our precious time, from 5am walks to constant washing and feeding, it is a miracle that anyone finds the time to look after these mongrels. Dogs require time, these dumb hounds can’t even seem to manage to clean themselves, and they require humans to treat them like royalty, just so they can complete some of the most basic tasks in life. When a cat goes on a stroll it can manage to walk for miles and come home with barley a speck of dirt on its fur and even if they somehow manage to get dirty, well they can clean themselves so that you don’t have to. Dogs on the other hand come home with half of a football pitch attached to their coats and small forest worth of trees and insects too, they don’t even have to decency to clean themselves up they just put all the dirty, horrible work on you. Can they exercise alone? Of course they can’t, they must have a person present so they can go on just a short walk and not lose their way home. Cats on the other hand can travel for miles and still manage to get all the way back with no help. Canines find it tricky to even finish the toilet without some kind of assistance; at least our moggies have the decency to bury anything they leave behind.  Bark, bark, bark. That is the constant noise of an animal that feels like it is the centre of the universe, they can’t even go 5 minutes without some sort of direct attention, they are like a noisy toddler who doesn’t know the concept of peace and quiet. Someone needs to teach these mutts some manners.

So dogs have definitely had their day, with deaths, cost and all the time that these animals require, the tally really starts to add up. A choice between an animal worshipped as a God and a hound of the woods it is easy to see that the questions has finally been answered once and for all.