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There has long been a point of debate in the cats vs. dogs argument in which dog people sneer at cat people because we all know that, should a cat owner die, the cat would care so little for their owner that they would eat their corpse.
Something a loyal dog would never do of course, unless there was literally no other choice.
I’m not sure under what circumstances a pet dog would eat its owner’s dead body, but it turns out that your cat would totally eat you if you died and it was trapped without options. Or maybe even if they had other options.
A new case study, published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, reports on how two cats reacted when introduced to Colorado Mesa University’s body farm.
The “Forensic Investigation Research Station” is where budding forensic scientists study decomposing bodies in order to better assist in criminal investigations.
The cats actually found the corpses by accident – student and lead author Sara Garcia was watching surveillance footage of the farm when she noticed the two felines sneaking through the fences.
She watched them chow down on the flesh of two corpses still in the early stages of decomposition, though they lost their appetite when the bodies began leaching fluid.
The cats each chose a body and stuck with it, preferring the meat of the shoulder and arm while the getting was good.
Medical examiners have documented damage done to human bodies by both cats and dogs who were left in homes with deceased owners, though only cats have been known to eat their ex-owner even when they had the option of available kibble.
So it seems your dog would eat you, but only if they didn’t have any other way to stay alive.
I’m strangely comforted.
But, you know…I don’t have a cat.
