According to science, our dogs love us more than our cats

For a cat lover such as myself, this is terrible news: According to research conducted by scientists for BBC’s documentary Cats vs. Dogs, our canine friends love us more than our feline ones.

My BFF’s insane preference for puppies is vindicated! Noooooooo.

Researchers tested pets for their oxytocin levels before and after they saw their owners. Oxytocin, known as the “love hormone,” is the hormone released by mothers when they bond with their newborn baby. Ten cats and ten dogs had saliva taken, then played with their owners for ten minutes, the Daily Mail reported. Researchers than took another another swab of the pets’ saliva and compared the levels of the chemical to see what effect seeing their owner had on them.

Encouragingly, both cats and dogs increased their oxytocin levels, proving they both do love us – even cats. See, everyone? Cats are wonderful! They loves us! In the obviously true-t0-life film Homeward Bound, it’s not just Chance and Shadow aching to return to their owners, the cat Sassy wants to, too!

However, according to the study, dogs love us more. They show a way bigger oxytocin hormone increase of 57.2 per cent compared to just 12 per cent in the cats.

After examining the results, neuroscientist Dr. Paul Zak commented, “From this sample it’s true to say that these dogs love their owners five times more than the cats do.” This doesn’t mean cats don’t love us — but dogs experience the love hormone five times more.

Dr. Zak added this surprising thought: Dogs might even love us more than we love each other! What? According to him, when humans see a spouse or child the oxytocin levels in our bloodstream normally rise by 40 to 60 percent. He added, “I was really surprised to discover that dogs produced such high levels of oxytocin. It was also a nice surprise to discover that cats produce any at all. At least some of the time, cats seem to bond with their owners.”

This cat lover has to say, she wasn’t surprised in the least. I know my cat loves me!  (Image via Shuterstock)