Do you like animals better than people?

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Marybird asks a question I was recently reading on. Social animals do indeed have high degrees of social intelligence, with the most sociable species obviously having the highest social intelligence.

Dogs in particular have extremely high social intelligence, though there is much variation. For example, pit bulls frequently don't get along well with other dogs. I myself had a pit bull mix years ago. She loved everybody, but couldn't get along with other dogs very well.

As far as cats and hunting, I keep a cat, a very friendly cat, to keep the rodent population in my barn and around my house under control. The cat I've got now was hunting at two months old because she is an outside cat. Since hunting is a lot of work, most cats would rather wait for a free handout of food from their owners. If this is the way they were brought up, they will never develop a taste for wild prey. I'm guessing that had you kept your cat outside as a kitten, and only gave her enough cat chow to keep her around, that she would be an excellent hunter.

It's actually the same with dogs. Several weeks ago, during dove hunting season, a hunter shot a dove that landed on my side of the fence. Well, my lab picked it up and ate it the way we would eat a candy bar. But dogs that grow up in town likely would just play with a dead animal rather than eat it.

I kept him and his brother inside for the first two years of their lives and fed them the same, yes. But his brother took to hunting right away once let outside, doing very well at it.

I think their obviously different genetics might have something to do with it, though. While sharing the same mother, they almost certainly have different fathers given their different appearance (clumsy cat who makes social gaffes with other cats: large b/w longhair; agile smooth big-time hunter cat: small for a tom, decidedly shorthaired, mostly orange).

I think you guys bring up some interesting points. I like animals in general, but I do find that, as with people, I get along with some animals better than others. This is not so much dependent on the species as much as it the individual. I like most cats, but I have a better rapport with certain cats than with others. In contrast, I'm not a huge fan of dogs, yet there are some dogs I meet outside that I instantly hit it off with.

Often, I actually do prefer the company of animals to that of human beings. I'll just sit at the side of the water with the ducks and geese at those moments. I do believe that part of the appeal for me in interacting with animals, is that other species of animals don't really expect you to 'get' all their specific social rules, while they don't expect to understand human language either. So inter-species interaction/communication is going to be a lot more primal and perhaps even more sincere than intra-species communication, where there's so much pre-set expectations and norms and values you have to adhere to. I don't have that issue when I'm with cats.

I can get along with people but I perfer being around animals. I love cats and I'm okay with dogs. One of my interests is about cats in general.

I'm one of the minority here who prefers humans, I find animals are fun for a short while but I get bored of them very quickly since you can't really do much with them, on the other hand with humans there's almost an infinite number of activities and games you can share if they are willing to join in. If you want something cute to cuddle or play with, that's what juvenile humans are there for right? The conversation is better too.

Animals are simpler and they love you back. If they think "f**k off", it shows immediately. There is nothing to be confused about there.The relationship can be deep, and the more you understand of each others language, the more giving it becomes.
When all this is said, I think, that I would eventually go nuts if I couldn´t speak/relate to another human on a regular basis.
I hate the idea of animals being kept and experimented on, but, if I had a relative with a painful or/and deadly disease, I would be glad to see them healed by means of medicin, that initially had been tested on...animals.
Yes, I think I like animals better than humans and my social need isn´t the greatest, - but I certainly wouldn´t want to live secluded from my own species.

Yes, animals often operate in hierarchies -- meerkat's, for example, will have a matriarch who makes sure other females are forced to be submissive to her and not have babies that may compete with her own offspring.

I've also seen in my colony of Canada geese, that they operate a hierarchical society -- top of the society are mated couples with a family of offspring -- they get to boss every other goose around. Then comes mated couples without kids -- they boss around the single, unmated birds. Lowest in the totem pole comes the geese and ganders who are still too young to have paired up with a mate, but are old enough to not be in a family unit of origin anymore. They get bossed around by all the rest, in competition for available food, and have to act submissive or get bitten on the butt!

Oddly enough, it's very like our society! I still prefer hanging out with them though. They don't sort me into the hierarchy, thank goodness! If they did it would be just like being around humans!

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Yes, I certainly do prefer animals to human beings. I used to get really attached to my fish, and would get really depressed when they died. Also, dogs seem to always like me almost immediately - they come right up to me and persuade me to pet and love on them.

Not only do I prefer real animals to human beings, I prefer stuffed animals too.

I prefer animals to people as well. I have a very hard time relating to basically everyone so I would prefer to spend time with my dog or other animals instead of people (unless it's my parents)

Wow, I'm not surprised animals are winning out, but I'm surprised by how much of a margin.

I actually voted people. I love cats, but I'm not too fond of most other animals, they tend to scare me. But I don't really like interacting with people unless they are interesting/intellectual or I love them.

Animals. But frankly enough, I eat meat.

I chose people, but a better response would be some people

Animals>>> ..I care for people, very deeply, actually. I just don't like very many of them.