Larger Dogs (Pro) or Common House cats (Con)

To be clear, I submit that my opponent has not yet made any arguments. He has stated several premises which, by definition, exist to support an argument. You cannot come to any conclusion without first defining an argument. Additionally, since Pro is the instigator of this debate, and also the proponent, he has the burden of proof (and more importantly, the burden of providing an argument). That being said, I will easily dismiss the 3 premises my opponent has stated, and provide some compelling premises of my own, supporting an argument that I have in my head that no one gets to know but me. Premise 1: Dogs are trainable. I am not choosing to argue against this statement. I would like to point out, however, that you are not stating that cats cannot be trained and thus your point has little merit. You might as well say "Dogs have tails" or "Justin Beiber is a terrible musician, and person in general" (there goes my 8-16 yr old girl vote XD). Premise 2: Cats are scared by any new people. I am choosing to argue against this statement. I assume this statement to mean either 1 of 2 things: 2a) MOST cats are scared by new people, or 2b) ALL cats are scared by new people Premise 2b is the easiest to dismiss. Very simply, I shall use the source you used for your information to point out the severe error in your statement. "However, if a cat is calm and friendly with his family but afraid of visitors, it's often because he didn't have enough experience meeting new people when he was very young." [1] The source you provided as evidence dismisses your argument. Arguing against premise 2a is going to require me to bring in my own source to nullify Pro's statement. Dogs can also be scared or shy or new people. In either case, both cats and dogs can be fearful of things they re not accustomed to, in this case, humans. [2] In fact, just about anything that a dog has never encountered before: sights, sounds, smells, and on rare occasion even taste can cause a dog to be fearful. [3] I would like to add another incredibly significant argument, that should tilt the scales heavily in my favor at this point. Related to Pro's 2nd premise, dogs have a shocking disadvantage to cats in one area: the number of humans they have hurt and killed. In the United States alone, dogs send on average more than 1000 victims to the emergency room DAILY for bites. [4] "Getting bitten by a dog is the fifth most frequent cause of visits to emergency rooms caused by activities common among children." [4] After extensive research (almost 3 minutes) I have found no documented cases of death by common house cat (like... wtf... I know, right?). In 2010, 33 documented fatalities from dog bites occurred, of which, 72% were family members (i.e. lived in the house with the dog). [5] Premise 3: Dogs chase cats because they are faster, stronger, and smarter. This is just poor logic. If this were true, then why don't dolphins chase cats? And why don't dogs chase babies and children? OMG they do. And that's why 19 of those 33 people that were killed by dogs in 2010 were under the age of 10. 6 of those 19 were under the age of 12 months. [5] Maybe, just maybe, chasing things just because they are slower, weaker, and dumber than us isn't a good thing. Maybe that makes dogs bad. When I think of humans who prey on things that are smaller, slower, and weaker than themselves, I don't typically think of those humans as superior to others. Your premises are invalid, although they were pointless before they began existing because they do not support an actual argument. Since this debate is not about whether or not someone likes cats or dogs more, dog lovers or cat haters the world over can still vote Con and sleep at night. Since Pro has not made any sound case, I urge a vote in favor of Con. [1] pets.webmd.com/cats/guide/shy-fearful-cats [2] http://www.professorshouse.com... [3] http://westwoodanimalhospital.com... [4] http://dogbitelaw.com... [5] http://www.dogsbite.org...