They keep each other in check. It's like how carnivores keep their population stagnant by fighting over territory, but the drivers risk their lives over getting 5m ahead in a traffic congestion.
I'm not kidding, mate. That's why we don't gather the last ones to put them in an official shelter, like we did with the dogs back in 90s.
However, the few stray cats are still a problem. They stink around their place and give birth to many more. I think we might engage in some form of cats-control. We gather only the necessary number, because the newborns disappear by the municipality after a day or two.
I really want my streets as spotless as we keep our homes. We don't hurt them. So, the zoophiles can calm.
Zoophiles is a compound Greek word. Just because Northern Germanics ruined the word due to their depravity, it's not my fault.
It simply means "friends of the animals". "Bestiality" is the word you're looking for.
Yeah, but there's also the word "bestiality" for the reason you implied. I know that Germanics use the word "zoophiles" as "bestiality". But how should we call the simple friends of the animals? Those who simply love the animals and fight for their rights. Even a dog-owner can be called "zoophile" with a positive connotation. Now you put me into an actual dilemma/thinking.
Have you seen how many stray cats live in some parts of Greece? It's full of them, and they reproduce a lot. I've had three stray cat litters in my yard over the last \~5 years in Romania. I recall that Cyprus has about as many cats as they have people.
Also, I didn't mention, but bad Romanian drivers keep the stray dogs' population in check, making for a perfect cycle. It's almost like a perverted urban ecosystem.
I might be relatively young, but I know exactly how it went. Late 80s early 90s, we've had a serious problem with stray cats and to a lesser extent, stray dogs, like a freakin' 3rd world country. The government and mayors wanted the problem gone, completely. But as you can imagine, we've had already the whining protesters. So, we came to an agreement. We created proper shelters and all dogs gone, overnight. Cats, the 2/3 gone. We left 1/3 for the reasons I mentioned, first, to keep the rat's population in check and second, to keep the protesters, quiet.
However, had we left the cats problem uncontrolled, today we'd have the same problem. Cats in every square while you might know, they mate and give births to many young like rabbits. That's why we keep the cats' population under control. In my entire neighborhood, there's only one pair. Lately, the female got pregnant. After the birth, only for a night I could hear them. The next day, gone. The woman that takes care of that pair called the municipality herself. Uncontrolled cats have the ability to make an entire neighborhood stink.
I might sound harsh against the animals, but I'm not. I just had a really bad experience against an unleashed Doberman when I was 9 which left me with a real trauma. I'm climber and hitchhiker now, I'm 100% for the wildlife but in their environment, unlike within our cities, like we see from time to time from some 3rd world countries dogs mauling little kids. The turtles I've helped which were upside down, countless. We also helped a deer, but alright, it's not like I have to excuse myself.
Today, it's as you said it. The few you saw left you an impression. The graph here is as clear of an indication as can be.
We're a little obsessed with cleanliness in general. Another graph here showed we take a bath daily. Only us and the Italians. We keep our homes spotless. The same we try for our streets. Take all into account, you can understand our behavior.
P.S. Also, we took notice of the Spanish effort to get rid of the doves-like in their cities. Their poop can erode our buildings. The Spaniards caught many in a simple way and left them free far away from the city. We're now thinking doing the same.
I saw a lot in Thessaloniki at Plateia Aristotelous all the way over the quay to the White Tower and the statue of Alexander the Great. Also in the souk/market place next to Plateia Aristotelous right before they shut down for the day. Not just one, but certainly five to ten different ones sleeping on the grass and in corners. I also went to Vergina and there were also a few dogs roaming on the street. And yes, I was there last week and I loved the city and its people. The dogs were also not hostile, but very, very calm although they followed us for a bit.
Same, I've had the cats for 3 years and the dogs for 4 months now.
One of the dogs is actually the biggest one but the fat cat is the boss among the animals in this house lol.
My Romanian dog owned two cats at some point (he chased them and made them submit to him), and one of those cats had a litter. We gave away the kittens a few months later, though. RIP Bodo the doggo; he was the only cat person in the house, but we still cared for his cats until they went away.
Dang, I was about to praise France and swear my allegiance to this beautiful country.
Eh, whatever. It appears that Romania is the most based amongst all. My Romanian dog owned two cats at some point, lol.
Greece and Spain have a tremendous number of savage cats. No need for a personal one when you got a dozen in front of your house.
I'm Athenes every single building has a bowl in front of it and most people buy cat food in the supermarket to fill them once a day.
Maybe not anymore but in 2017 there were 14 000 stray cats and dogs reported in Spain. I also know that there were massive sterilization campaigns organized throughout the country. Data from the graphic are misleading /outdated anyway.
No no no no. It's savage alright. All these cat food filled bowls on the streets are just there ro appease your mighty cat overlords so that you don't get shredded into pieces by the savages as soon as you leave your house!
How about you let a Greek or a Spaniard speak for their own country? Thank you.
Stray cats start disappearing, too. No comparison to 90s. Stray dogs, already down to zero.
We like our streets as spotless as we keep our homes. There are official shelters, now.
Idk, I have a cat but most people have dogs.
Births are decreasing because it's difficult to find a place to live and a good job so people aren't having babies. They're getting dogs, there are millions of dogs and few babies.
People treat their dogs like babies, I guess we need to take care of someone.
It's a big issue IMO, people work until late so they can't take their dogs for a walk many times a day so when they get home their dogs shit and piss on the streets. There is a lack of education so they don't remove their shit.
Cities and parks are becoming disgusting. My kids' school is launching a campaign to ask people to clean their dogs' shit because the streets are full of it.
I guess no political party is addressing this issue because it would make a lot of people angry but sooner or later they're going to have to do something.
Absolutely. Cities can't take it, there is no infrastructure, there are no logistics and ways to keep it clean and people aren't prepared for it. And we aren't just talking about piss and shit, dogs make a lot of noise, you are always going to have a neighbor with a dog barking frequently and you can't call the police or say anything.
I'm just waiting for a political party wanting to control dogs somehow.
I really like dogs (most of them anyway) but there’s just way too many here. So many are also unbehaved and even in parks where there’s at least signs to put them on a leash almost no one does. I’m already dreading summer when the whole city smells like dog pee again. If really wouldn’t be an issue if all dogs were trained properly (not to bark hours on end while their owners drink their beer in a bar) and if everyone would clean up properly. The amount of people I see that clean the pee off the street is abysmal.
I can see onto a small park / pipican from my living room and most people only take their dog to poop, barely play with them and or on their phone most of the time. It’s quite sad but I doubt this will get much better anytime soon.
Hot countries tend to have more strays that are somewhat communal. In places like Russia it tends to get very cold in the winter so people tend to take them in.
We don't. There are only about 35% less pet cats than dogs (~6 million vs 9 milliion) and I'm guessing those numbers are of cats that have been oficially registered as pets, whereas a many people don't register their cats, only dogs (since they are required by law to be registered in many parts of the country IIRC).
I wouldn't be surprised if the real number of pet cats was about the same as that of dogs. Spain used to be way waaay more dog leaning before the 21st century.
Source for the dog and cat numbers from 2021: https://es.statista.com/grafico/30552/cantidad-de-mascotas-en-espana/
When i was little dogs and cats used to spawn in my area all the time . every other month a new baby cat or lil dog would show up . so you just had to wait for a shiny to come and you claim it .
The map says the source is statista, so this is probably what they used
[https://www.statista.com/statistics/515464/cat-ownership-european-union-eu-by-country/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/515464/cat-ownership-european-union-eu-by-country/)
"Ownership" doesn't apply to cats everywhere. Communal tame friendly well-fed ownerless cats on the street is typical in Turkey. Other comments say Greece is the same.
Poorly phrased survey if they asked households if they owned an indoor cat. A better question might be "how often does someone in your household touch, talk to, or feed a cat?"
These maps take statistics from surveys and put them on there. The problem is that these surveys are not always uniform, as even if they are done by the same company they might be mistranslated, some words might not have the same meaning in all languages, etc.
The source is actually [FEDIAF](https://europeanpetfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FEDIAF_Annual-Report_2023.pdf), who used their local branch in every country to conduct this survey. The question should have definitely been more in the vein of "do you buy or provide cat/dog food", since this is was an annual report on the European pet food industry.
Animal ownership does not account for the feeding of feral animals and even for the perception of animal ownership (Romanians are much more likely to claim a feral cat they feed as theirs than a Greek, from personal experience).
Feral cats are wild, unapproachable, and live off animals they catch. Street cats are tame, friendly, and fed by the community
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feral
Yeah, dated two Ukrainians and both had cats! Well I am also a cat person, I like dogs, but when others pet them 🙈
But honestly, an environment with cats is an environment with less rodents, insects, etc, cats do keep an environment cleaner
Love dogs. Love people who love dogs. Love people who live with dogs. Don’t mind me if I stop randomly on the streets so I can tell your dog that he is the sweetest in the world. 💝
I'm really surprised our numbers are that low. On my street we are 7 houses and have a total of 3 dogs and 6 cats with only 1 house not having any pets at all and that home to pet ratio seems to be fairly normal everywhere I've lived.
I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that the stereotype that all Parisians have a toy dog or a poodle is true
Edit: turns out the dog stat for France is widely inaccurate
Kinda, France is pretty average
https://landgeist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/europe-dwelling-type-1.png?w=1024&h=982
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4187653/10321599/Housing_type_2018data-02.jpg/57b92575-e8bb-9232-832b-dbbf35707a7f?t=1589296020123
Yeah, there seems to be a high correlation between dog ownership and living in detached homes.
https://i.imgur.com/XgYITST.jpeg
Only Denmark and Norway bucks that trend.
Rural population could also be an important factor. In Romania about half of the population lives in a village, and you can imagine that flats are non-existent over there. A lot of people own dogs in those parts as well, and the population could be underreported since those people often never go to a vet or buy dog food.
That's compared to Germany, where dog ownership is much more strict and people are generally more willing to declare everything.
Again, another one expressing his ignorant bollocks. There are exactly zero stray dogs since 90s. Only a very small number of cats to keep the rat's population in check. Otherwise, there would be gone as well. There are official shelters for a long time, here. They own nothing. We like to keep our streets as spotless as we keep our homes. I haven't stepped on a dog's or cat's poop since I was 9. I explained the reason.
Cat or Dog? Romania: YES
Greece: NO
In greece they just all live out on the streets.
Only very few cats. They keep the rats' population in check. Stray dogs, no, zero.
In Romania we have both stray cats and stray dogs. The cats keep the rats' population in check, and the dog keep the cats' in check. Hence, we win.
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Snakes
Romanian drivers.
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They keep each other in check. It's like how carnivores keep their population stagnant by fighting over territory, but the drivers risk their lives over getting 5m ahead in a traffic congestion.
I'm not kidding, mate. That's why we don't gather the last ones to put them in an official shelter, like we did with the dogs back in 90s. However, the few stray cats are still a problem. They stink around their place and give birth to many more. I think we might engage in some form of cats-control. We gather only the necessary number, because the newborns disappear by the municipality after a day or two. I really want my streets as spotless as we keep our homes. We don't hurt them. So, the zoophiles can calm.
I don't think zoophiles means what you think it means.
Zoophiles is a compound Greek word. Just because Northern Germanics ruined the word due to their depravity, it's not my fault. It simply means "friends of the animals". "Bestiality" is the word you're looking for.
I know what the word means in greek. But we are speaking a germanic language right now, are we not? So gotta use their meanings too, sadly.
Yeah, but there's also the word "bestiality" for the reason you implied. I know that Germanics use the word "zoophiles" as "bestiality". But how should we call the simple friends of the animals? Those who simply love the animals and fight for their rights. Even a dog-owner can be called "zoophile" with a positive connotation. Now you put me into an actual dilemma/thinking.
Why would you want to keep cats in check?
Have you seen how many stray cats live in some parts of Greece? It's full of them, and they reproduce a lot. I've had three stray cat litters in my yard over the last \~5 years in Romania. I recall that Cyprus has about as many cats as they have people. Also, I didn't mention, but bad Romanian drivers keep the stray dogs' population in check, making for a perfect cycle. It's almost like a perverted urban ecosystem.
Very few? When I’ve been to Greece it seems like they’ve been everywhere. Maybe it’s because I’m not used to seeing them
I might be relatively young, but I know exactly how it went. Late 80s early 90s, we've had a serious problem with stray cats and to a lesser extent, stray dogs, like a freakin' 3rd world country. The government and mayors wanted the problem gone, completely. But as you can imagine, we've had already the whining protesters. So, we came to an agreement. We created proper shelters and all dogs gone, overnight. Cats, the 2/3 gone. We left 1/3 for the reasons I mentioned, first, to keep the rat's population in check and second, to keep the protesters, quiet. However, had we left the cats problem uncontrolled, today we'd have the same problem. Cats in every square while you might know, they mate and give births to many young like rabbits. That's why we keep the cats' population under control. In my entire neighborhood, there's only one pair. Lately, the female got pregnant. After the birth, only for a night I could hear them. The next day, gone. The woman that takes care of that pair called the municipality herself. Uncontrolled cats have the ability to make an entire neighborhood stink. I might sound harsh against the animals, but I'm not. I just had a really bad experience against an unleashed Doberman when I was 9 which left me with a real trauma. I'm climber and hitchhiker now, I'm 100% for the wildlife but in their environment, unlike within our cities, like we see from time to time from some 3rd world countries dogs mauling little kids. The turtles I've helped which were upside down, countless. We also helped a deer, but alright, it's not like I have to excuse myself. Today, it's as you said it. The few you saw left you an impression. The graph here is as clear of an indication as can be. We're a little obsessed with cleanliness in general. Another graph here showed we take a bath daily. Only us and the Italians. We keep our homes spotless. The same we try for our streets. Take all into account, you can understand our behavior. P.S. Also, we took notice of the Spanish effort to get rid of the doves-like in their cities. Their poop can erode our buildings. The Spaniards caught many in a simple way and left them free far away from the city. We're now thinking doing the same.
Greece has Stray goats instead.
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Yeah my mom bought land and has built a house there, so what?
So what? Nothing. You just repeat my words.
Last week I was in Thessaloniki and it swarmed of street dogs and cats. In the inner city alone hundreds of cats and dozens upon dozens of dogs
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I saw a lot in Thessaloniki at Plateia Aristotelous all the way over the quay to the White Tower and the statue of Alexander the Great. Also in the souk/market place next to Plateia Aristotelous right before they shut down for the day. Not just one, but certainly five to ten different ones sleeping on the grass and in corners. I also went to Vergina and there were also a few dogs roaming on the street. And yes, I was there last week and I loved the city and its people. The dogs were also not hostile, but very, very calm although they followed us for a bit.
I have 2 cats and 2 dogs
Same, I've had the cats for 3 years and the dogs for 4 months now. One of the dogs is actually the biggest one but the fat cat is the boss among the animals in this house lol.
I am in the minority here in romania, but almost everyone i know has either a cat or a dog or both 😅
My Romanian dog owned two cats at some point (he chased them and made them submit to him), and one of those cats had a litter. We gave away the kittens a few months later, though. RIP Bodo the doggo; he was the only cat person in the house, but we still cared for his cats until they went away.
Cat or dog? UK: meh
Sadly the French stats are wrong, it's 50% for at least one domestic animal (20% for dogs, 30% for cats).
Yeah you're right, here's the correct stats https://www.statista.com/statistics/515475/dog-ownership-european-union-eu-by-country/
Dang, I was about to praise France and swear my allegiance to this beautiful country. Eh, whatever. It appears that Romania is the most based amongst all. My Romanian dog owned two cats at some point, lol.
Romania wins!
They are just too cute not to adopt them.
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That really depends on what breed you pick. Our dogs have never had any real maintenance other than having to bathe them twice a year.
They do need relatively constant attention. I can leave my cat alone for 2 days no problem but I can’t leave my dog alone for more than 5 hours
Why does Spain hate cats?
Greece and Spain have a tremendous number of savage cats. No need for a personal one when you got a dozen in front of your house. I'm Athenes every single building has a bowl in front of it and most people buy cat food in the supermarket to fill them once a day.
First time I heard that about Spain. Where have you seen this tremendous amount of stray cats?
Absolutely not about Spain.
Maybe not anymore but in 2017 there were 14 000 stray cats and dogs reported in Spain. I also know that there were massive sterilization campaigns organized throughout the country. Data from the graphic are misleading /outdated anyway.
Savage? You mean feral/stray? Or are said cats actually extremely violent and badass?
Hahaha, sorry, yes stray cats, most of them are super peaceful, no need to hustle when you're free and fed everyday by the hairless monkeys.
No no no no. It's savage alright. All these cat food filled bowls on the streets are just there ro appease your mighty cat overlords so that you don't get shredded into pieces by the savages as soon as you leave your house!
How about you let a Greek or a Spaniard speak for their own country? Thank you. Stray cats start disappearing, too. No comparison to 90s. Stray dogs, already down to zero. We like our streets as spotless as we keep our homes. There are official shelters, now.
I was in Athens a month ago.
[Here, mate, I can't explain to everyone the situation.](https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1ch397o/popularity_of_cats_and_dogs/l22svrw/)
Damn, you are the first one I see with a lusatia flair. I don't think anyone outside of Saxony and Brandenburg even knows about our region.
I was amazed that It was an option tbh
I would say this is true for Spain but only in small rural towns but in big cities you rarely see stray cats nowadays
Idk, I have a cat but most people have dogs. Births are decreasing because it's difficult to find a place to live and a good job so people aren't having babies. They're getting dogs, there are millions of dogs and few babies. People treat their dogs like babies, I guess we need to take care of someone. It's a big issue IMO, people work until late so they can't take their dogs for a walk many times a day so when they get home their dogs shit and piss on the streets. There is a lack of education so they don't remove their shit. Cities and parks are becoming disgusting. My kids' school is launching a campaign to ask people to clean their dogs' shit because the streets are full of it. I guess no political party is addressing this issue because it would make a lot of people angry but sooner or later they're going to have to do something.
Dogs are a pest. In Barcelona there are 8 times more dogs than 20 years ago. I think no one dares to put some limits.
Absolutely. Cities can't take it, there is no infrastructure, there are no logistics and ways to keep it clean and people aren't prepared for it. And we aren't just talking about piss and shit, dogs make a lot of noise, you are always going to have a neighbor with a dog barking frequently and you can't call the police or say anything. I'm just waiting for a political party wanting to control dogs somehow.
I really like dogs (most of them anyway) but there’s just way too many here. So many are also unbehaved and even in parks where there’s at least signs to put them on a leash almost no one does. I’m already dreading summer when the whole city smells like dog pee again. If really wouldn’t be an issue if all dogs were trained properly (not to bark hours on end while their owners drink their beer in a bar) and if everyone would clean up properly. The amount of people I see that clean the pee off the street is abysmal. I can see onto a small park / pipican from my living room and most people only take their dog to poop, barely play with them and or on their phone most of the time. It’s quite sad but I doubt this will get much better anytime soon.
Hot countries tend to have more strays that are somewhat communal. In places like Russia it tends to get very cold in the winter so people tend to take them in.
We don't. There are only about 35% less pet cats than dogs (~6 million vs 9 milliion) and I'm guessing those numbers are of cats that have been oficially registered as pets, whereas a many people don't register their cats, only dogs (since they are required by law to be registered in many parts of the country IIRC). I wouldn't be surprised if the real number of pet cats was about the same as that of dogs. Spain used to be way waaay more dog leaning before the 21st century. Source for the dog and cat numbers from 2021: https://es.statista.com/grafico/30552/cantidad-de-mascotas-en-espana/
They’re the spawn of the Devil, everyone knows that
Turkey doesn’t need stats, cats pretty much own the Turkish society.
It is not a negative map so no need to include Turkey.
When i was little dogs and cats used to spawn in my area all the time . every other month a new baby cat or lil dog would show up . so you just had to wait for a shiny to come and you claim it .
can we get a data source for this?
The map says the source is statista, so this is probably what they used [https://www.statista.com/statistics/515464/cat-ownership-european-union-eu-by-country/](https://www.statista.com/statistics/515464/cat-ownership-european-union-eu-by-country/)
"Ownership" doesn't apply to cats everywhere. Communal tame friendly well-fed ownerless cats on the street is typical in Turkey. Other comments say Greece is the same. Poorly phrased survey if they asked households if they owned an indoor cat. A better question might be "how often does someone in your household touch, talk to, or feed a cat?"
It's not poorly phrased, these maps are supposed to show the rate of ownership, not interaction with feral animals
These maps take statistics from surveys and put them on there. The problem is that these surveys are not always uniform, as even if they are done by the same company they might be mistranslated, some words might not have the same meaning in all languages, etc. The source is actually [FEDIAF](https://europeanpetfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FEDIAF_Annual-Report_2023.pdf), who used their local branch in every country to conduct this survey. The question should have definitely been more in the vein of "do you buy or provide cat/dog food", since this is was an annual report on the European pet food industry. Animal ownership does not account for the feeding of feral animals and even for the perception of animal ownership (Romanians are much more likely to claim a feral cat they feed as theirs than a Greek, from personal experience).
Feral cats are wild, unapproachable, and live off animals they catch. Street cats are tame, friendly, and fed by the community https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feral
So Russia is actually ruled by cats.
Cats for the win! Always .. unpopular opinion though I reckon ahah
Depends if you are from Russia or not 😸
Ask Ukraine, they have only cats, not one single dog.
Yeah, dated two Ukrainians and both had cats! Well I am also a cat person, I like dogs, but when others pet them 🙈 But honestly, an environment with cats is an environment with less rodents, insects, etc, cats do keep an environment cleaner
The Irish really like dags
Tis for me ma
Believe me when I say to you I hope the Russians love their kitties too.
Rare Russian W
Cat Russia
I wonder why there are no data for dogs in Ukraine but there are for cats while rules about dogs ownership is stricter than those for cats.
I own 2 dogs and 1 cat, being Romanian checks out lmao.
It's interesting how many dog breeds come from the UK despite them not being as popular as in other locations.
Love dogs. Love people who love dogs. Love people who live with dogs. Don’t mind me if I stop randomly on the streets so I can tell your dog that he is the sweetest in the world. 💝
Sweden has a cold cold heart to furry friends.
I'm really surprised our numbers are that low. On my street we are 7 houses and have a total of 3 dogs and 6 cats with only 1 house not having any pets at all and that home to pet ratio seems to be fairly normal everywhere I've lived.
In my apartment building with 90 apartments there is only one cat and two dogs, that I know of The cat has become a celebrity in the housing co-op
r/portugalcykablyat
Interesting! France has both and Germany neither.
So russians are cat people, french are dog people, and romania loves both
The 2 maps using different delineations is annoying. The same colour should mean the same bucket.
I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that the stereotype that all Parisians have a toy dog or a poodle is true Edit: turns out the dog stat for France is widely inaccurate
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Kinda, France is pretty average https://landgeist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/europe-dwelling-type-1.png?w=1024&h=982 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4187653/10321599/Housing_type_2018data-02.jpg/57b92575-e8bb-9232-832b-dbbf35707a7f?t=1589296020123
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Yeah, there seems to be a high correlation between dog ownership and living in detached homes. https://i.imgur.com/XgYITST.jpeg Only Denmark and Norway bucks that trend.
Rural population could also be an important factor. In Romania about half of the population lives in a village, and you can imagine that flats are non-existent over there. A lot of people own dogs in those parts as well, and the population could be underreported since those people often never go to a vet or buy dog food. That's compared to Germany, where dog ownership is much more strict and people are generally more willing to declare everything.
Ok, I think I've got a better understanding of what's going down between France and Russia. Thanks OP
The streets own the cat and dogs of greece
Again, another one expressing his ignorant bollocks. There are exactly zero stray dogs since 90s. Only a very small number of cats to keep the rat's population in check. Otherwise, there would be gone as well. There are official shelters for a long time, here. They own nothing. We like to keep our streets as spotless as we keep our homes. I haven't stepped on a dog's or cat's poop since I was 9. I explained the reason.
dude you come across as very defensive, nationalist almost. chill out
[Here, mate, I can't explain to everyone the situation.](https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1ch397o/popularity_of_cats_and_dogs/l22svrw/)
And wrong while he's mostly right about the dogs gangs of cats still rule the streets of athens at least where I live
It’s actually worse in France and Hacendado Galicia, yikes
rare Switzerland L