Essay on Cats are Better than Dogs

This is a short essay on cats are better than dogs written in plain English for kids. Anyone can use it if they want to.

Cats are not better than dogs; they are just different. To some people cats will be better than dogs and to other people dogs will be better than cats. It is about choice and what a person likes. But neither companion animal is better than the other in an absolute sense.

It is possible to justify why a cat is better than a dog and vice versa? If you do this you are just telling people what you prefer.

For example, I could say that cats are better than dogs because you don’t have to take them out for a walk. I might say this because I don’t like going out for walks. Another person might say that dogs are better than cats because you can take them out for walks and meet people and have some fun. In each example the reason why the person thinks a cat or dog is better is because the animal’s characteristics suits the person’s preferences.

Here is another example. Cats are more independent than dogs. Many people like this. Dogs are more needy and obedient towards their owner. Many people prefer this. Surveys tell us that intelligent, single woman like the independent mindedness of cats while family men like the less independent minded dog. Once again you can see that if a person thinks cats are better than dogs it is because the cat’s personality suits their requirements and personal preferences.

It is impossible to say than any species of animal is better than another without also accepting that the reasons will always be about a person’s likes and dislikes.

However, there are possibly exceptions to that general statement. Flies and mosquitoes are insects which appear to do no good whatsoever to the world. Quite the opposite, their presence is detrimental to the world. The world could do without their existence. Therefore they are worse than other creatures.

Is it possible to say an animal is better than another animal because it benefits the world more? Could you say that dogs are better than cats because you can train dogs to sniff out drugs or guns? You might be able to say that. If you could it would mean that dogs are better than cats in absolute sense. But how are we to weigh up the benefits that cats and dogs bring to the world?

Hundreds of millions of people get a lot of pleasure and companionship from their domestic cat companion. The same applies to dogs. However, in America there are more cats than dogs although the numbers are very close. If that is true, cats bring more companionship and pleasure to people than dogs. On that basis cats are better than dogs in an absolute sense.

You can see that it is impractical to argue that cats are better than dogs absolutely. The two species are different. They both contribute to human welfare in their own ways. Humans need to be mindful of that and consider more seriously cat and dog welfare to ensure than we stop killing them because they are unwanted.

I have to provide an update on Oct 17, 2021. Today I wrote an article on the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) in kgs per year created by cats and dogs. Arguably, cats are generally less environmentally damaging than dogs because they are smaller and therefore eat less. A modern plus point for the domestic cat, I hope you agree. Click here if you’d like to read the article. And on that topic below are some articles on global warming: