We all know the age old debates in our beloved state.
Alabama or Auburn?
White sauce or red sauce?
North Alabama or the Coast?
And most of us have a clear preference with each choice.
But where do you fall on this one—dog or cat?
According to a new study from www.kittyspout.com, Alabama is a clear dog state.
Using real data from more than 2,640 animal shelters across the United States, KittySpout created an interactive map to show which animal is most saved across all 50 states. You can find the map at: https://www.kittyspout.com/pages/cat-or-dog.
Consistent with most other Southern states, Alabama is a dog state, as the 48 shelters counted in the state last year saved 33,682 dogs and 24,938 cats.
That’s 135 dogs for every 100 cats, a difference of 8,744 animals.
Nationally, 1,641,809 dogs were saved in American shelters compared to 1,593,406 cats. The split among states is small, though, with 26 states leaning dog and 24 leaning cat.
The largest ‘dog state’ is Arkansas, where 65.5% of animals saved at shelters last year were dogs, almost a 2-1 margin.
At the top of the ‘cat state’ list you’ll find Delaware, where 78% of all shelter saved animals are cats.
While the KittySpout shed a humorous twist on the dog-cat debate, the harsh reality the data shows is that more than 3.2 million dogs and cats were saved at shelters across the country. And that doesn’t include animals at shelters that don’t have separate figures for dogs and cats.
John Butterworth with KittySpout explained the real lesson learned in the study.
“People love to argue cat versus dog, but shelters answer it differently, because they show which animals local shelters are actually saving,” Butterworth said. “No state’s label says its people love one more than the other, and every state on the map is doing serious work for both. If you don’t like Alabama’s result, your local shelter is the place to do something about it.”
And that’s something we all can agree on.