Cross Breeds

Why are cat breeds not known to us as well as dogs breeds?

I love all animals however I feel that dogs get more respect then cats. If you see a specific kind of dog walking down the road you will most likely know what kind of breed it is but when it comes to a cat - well it's just a cat. There are tons of different cats breeds and none but the siamese is well known. Poor kitty's.

Public Comments

1. Good question. Maybe dogs are more popular. I'm not sure really.
2. dog's have more use to human's than cats. Cats are house pets, to give company is their only purpose. Dogs are bred as guards, police units, rescue dogs, drug sniffers, eyes for the blind, races, house pets, sheepdogs, and all manner of things, they have more genetic variations in their breeding, making them more 'useful'
3. i think its becuase dogs where first and people from a very very very very long time ago went and talked about dogs more stuff like that lolz
4. Maybe because there is much more physical variation between dog breeds. Most cats are "cat-shaped" and cat-sized whereas dogs come in all sorts of readily identifiable shapes and sizes.
5. Couple reasons. First, dogs are bred for specific tasks. A dog that kills mice (Jack Russel) doesn't have the same traits a German Short Haired Pointer has. They need different skills and temperaments to be successful. Dogs are one of the most prominent and daily reminders of humans long obsession with molding their surroundings. It might not happen in a test tube or qualify as genetic engineering, but we have certainly meddled with the genome. The other reason I think is that a cat that is permitted outside is free to roam where he or she will, making interbreeding much more common in cats than in dogs, who for societal reasons are kept on a shorter leash (pardon the pun).
6. like the previous person said dogs have more uses. But I also feel that cats should have a little more respect when it comes down to breeds. If you ever noticed in a news paper where they list pets for sale, there are Golden Retriever puppies, pug puppies, etc. and then kittens or Siamese kittens. That is all I have ever since. When I was looking for a kitten in the paper, I was calling the numbers and asking what types of kittens they had and they all answer dumbfound "uhhh....", I think people should know more about the breeds of cats too.
7. Because even tho there are many of cat breeds, there are not as much as cats than there are dog breeds. Plus lots of breeds of cats are mixed. They are probably not as more popular than dogs because just about the only thing people can put their cat in is a cat show while dogs have Eucanuba, races, and cutest/ugliest dog contest plus more.
8. Most of the cats in the world aren't any specific breed - they are domestic short hairs, which is really a "mutt cat" or a moggie (love that term!) in Europe. Dogs tend to be a specific breed or a cross between two known breeds. Less than 10% of all the cats in the world are actually a specific breed.
9. I think it's because cats all look like cats. Sure, there are some variations, like Scottish folds or Manx cats, that have some sort of physical trait to identify them. Siamese are pretty obvious too. Other than that, all cats are about the same size, give or take an inch or two, or pound or two. Dogs come in a greater variety. It's impossible to confuse a Chihuahua and a Great Dane. They all look so different that it's easier to identify them. I think because cats were primarily kept as mousers, they were allowed to breed more indiscriminately. Different dog breeds were bred for different purposes, so people were a little more careful.
10. The reason people don't know what breed a cat is "walking down the street" is because IT ISN'T A BREED AT ALL. Only 3% of cats on this entire planet are a specific breed - the rest are simply "domestics". Cats were domesticated thousands of years ago and breeds only established in the last 100 or so. So 97% percent of cats AREN'T mixed - they simply don't have ANY specific breed in their background. As for "None but the the Siamese is well known"? To whom? A lot of us know most of - if not all - the recognized breeds. And a cat walking down the street with markings like a Siamese ISN'T a Siamese. It's simply a domestic with pointed markings. If you want to see some of them here's the breed TICA recognizes http://tica.org/public/breeds.php edit: to the person that said "I was calling the numbers and asking what types of kittens they had and they all answer dumbfound "uhhh....", I think people should know more about the breeds of cats too." They can't call a cat something it ISN'T - so these people were right - you are wrong. Read and educate yourself http://life.familyeducation.com/cats/pets/45684.html