Can a person who prefers people to animals have ASD?

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One of my first Aspie students was a "people person." He loved interacting with people even though other people often found him too aggressive, assertive, oblivious to cues or verbose and pedantic. He could talk your ear off, and even though he was just a kindergartner, he preferred talking to adults or older kids rather than kids his own age. He would get very hurt by the way kids his own age reacted to him, who usually couldn't sit still while he rattled through every detail about a book he read the night before or whatever he was fascinated by at the moment. Some other teachers who weren't so kind about his AS simply thought he needed to be medicated to shut him up. I guess it was a good thing I was around to reassure his mother that he just needed to learn social skills and to learn when it was OK and when it wasn't OK to try to start up a conversation with someone. He was a very sweet kid--I once told his mother I wanted to adopt him, and she said "I think his grandmother would not approve." I was rather horrified by some of the nasty reactions by some of the teachers at that school. If I had a kid, I would like one like him.

I'm okay with people and good with animals, I think. Animals are like... their intentions and their actions match. They can be somewhat tricky and deceptive (there have been studies on dogs trying to sneak food, for example), but in general there isn't that dissonance between intent and behavior that people have.

On the other hand, people can actually talk to me about things that are important to me (and to them), and we can share ideas, thoughts, etc, and establish a connection that is unlike what I establish with animals.

It's not that I don't like people. It's that people don't like me and don't want to be around me.

On the other hand, my cat loves me and wants to be near me.

I like cats and fish. I like some dogs, mostly the smaller, quieter type. Rabbits and rodents are soft, and warm, and nice to hold, but I don't care for them much beyond that. Lizards are fun to watch, but not very nice to touch. Birds bore me.

I like both equally. There are good people and bad people and nice animals and crap ones too.

HFA here and I prefer animals to people. I always have. They're so sweet the way that a cat rubs against my leg, or the way a dog looks at me with big brown eyes. :O)

It depends on the person..or the animal for that matter...

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I love animals and I love people too. So I guess I'd say... "both".

Sometimes cats are jerks, though. My boyfriend has an adorable little kitty. I love her to pieces, but she has a habit of scaring the crap out of me when I lay down to rest. She also cries for food hours before her designated meal time (she is not underweight, by the way) and will go around to different members of the household begging. She used to get fed twice this way.

I prefer people. Most people are potty-trained. I don't have to clean up their feces.

I used to have a cat that talked a lot, except she didn't say words she said "meow".

I don't mind people who like animals more than people, I just disagree with them.

I'm kind of scared of horses. I'm sure I could overcome my fear with more contact, though - I very seldom see horses. I'm also scared of certain bugs, especially those that sting. But in general, I like most kinds of animals. My favorite are cats - my family's nicknamed me 'the cat whisperer'.

I also like humans OK. I mean, I don't like crowds, and I'm not as obsessed with people as NTs are, but plenty of people are interesting and fun to interact with. Especially disabled people.

I don't have a lot of use for animals I can't eat. I like deep, intellectual discussion over all other activity and so only people seem to fit the bill.

I used to prefer animals as a child, then small children as they seemed less complicated than people my age and older. Now I don't really mind and in fact really didn't want a dog when my wife suggested it recently cos all I could think of was the bad points and how it's impact on me and the changes it'd bring