Surprise! Your Dog Loves You 5x More Than Your Cat

Ever wonder why your cat doesn't greet you at the door the same way your dog does? Turns out, your cat probably doesn't love you as much as you love it.

Dr. Paul Zak conducted a study to try and figure out which of our pets love us more, and the results weren't really surprising. It is already known that dogs release oxytocin, also known as the "love hormone," when they come into contact with their human. Dr, Zak says, "It’s one of the chemical measures of love in mammals. Humans produce the hormone in our brains when we care about someone. For example, when we see our spouse or child the levels in our bloodstream typically rise by 40-60 per cent.” And while testing for this hormone has been done on dogs, it had not been done on cats until recently.

The study went like this: Dr. Zak took saliva samples from 10 dogs and 10 cats before sending them over to their owners for a play session. Immediately after the play session was done, he took another saliva sample from each animal. The saliva was then tested for oxytocin. For dogs, the hormone increased an average of 57.2% in dogs. For cats it was 5x LESS, with only a 12% average increase.

Dr. Zak responded by saying, "I was really surprised to discover that dogs produced such high levels of oxytocin… the dog level of 57.2 per cent is a very powerful response. It shows these dogs really care about their owners. 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.”

So in case you needed evidence that your cat is kind of a jerk, here it is! Love them anyways.

[Via Independent]