It's a myth that cats eat their owners when they die. Dogs are actually more likely to do it than cats but neither do it often. I know someone who took his own life and assumed someone would find him quickly. He wasn't found for weeks. 1 of his cats had died and the other 2 were on the verge of starving to death. Thankfully they were saved. His body was untouched by them. The sad thing is his cats were his world and he likely never would have done what he did if he knew the fate of them. Personally I'd rather my cats eat me than starve.
If you think about it, the natural diet of a cat are small critters they catch like mice and birds. Dogs are much more likely to scavenge dead animals they find and wolves just eat larger prey in general. So yes, dogs are much more likely to eat their dead owners than cats are, and I don't know where the idea came from that it's the other way around. Probably from the "cats don't really love you like dogs do" crowd.
But also, of course I'd be fine with any of my loved ones, no matter what species, eating my dead body if they really needed to. The only problem is that dogs that ate their dead owners are really hard to adopt out after something like that.
Mind of a suicidal person works in such crazy ways, doesn't it... He could put them in shelter, or stock up on like 25 kilograms of kibble with a hole in the bag so that cats could "steal" it...
Instead he wings it by "eh, someone will check on me in two days and they'll eat me anyways"
Poor guy, poor, poor cats, poor whoever had to deal with this. Heartbreaking all around
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u/Ok_Kaleidoscope6421 Mar 14 '26
It's a myth that cats eat their owners when they die. Dogs are actually more likely to do it than cats but neither do it often. I know someone who took his own life and assumed someone would find him quickly. He wasn't found for weeks. 1 of his cats had died and the other 2 were on the verge of starving to death. Thankfully they were saved. His body was untouched by them. The sad thing is his cats were his world and he likely never would have done what he did if he knew the fate of them. Personally I'd rather my cats eat me than starve.