During football season, UF students and locals hate any animal that’s not a Gator.
Their opinions may line up with the results of an unconventional national poll conducted by Public Policy Polling.
For example, one in five Americans said they prefer to spend time with their pets instead of most people, and Butler Plaza Animal Hospital veterinary technician Sara Beth Christensen agreed.
“My cat is definitely better than most humans I know,” she said.
About 80 percent said they like or love their dogs, but only 58 percent said the same for cats. That makes sense because respondents preferred dogs to cats, though about one-fifth of respondents said they were more afraid of snakes than any other animal.
“Snakes have a brain the size of a walnut and won’t chase you down,” said Michael Moulton, associate professor in UF’s Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation. “It’s the big cats that seem the scariest to me — particularly tigers.”
But tigers actually won the vote for exotic pet that Americans would most like to own.
Other poll results showed that in a hypothetical fight between a bear and a shark, 56 percent of respondents picked the bear to win.
“The shark would just swallow the bear whole,” said Natalie Garcia, 20-year-old UF environmental engineering junior.
Christensen said, “The shark wouldn’t have any way to keep the bear from punching them into submission. My money is on the bear.”
