Talk:Cat

My recent edit was reverted. When i looked closely - in this article Cats are being referred to as it. In Dog - Dogs are referred to as they. Cats are sentient - we should use they Cinaroot  💬 07:31, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

@UtherSRG @BhagyaMani Cinaroot  💬 07:31, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

'It' is the pronoun used to refer to animals in academic works. Traumnovelle (talk) 07:48, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Again - does that not applies to dogs ? They are animals. Either cats be referred to as they or dogs article be changed to refer to dogs as it. I see no other way. Cinaroot  💬 07:55, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

WP:OTHERCONTENT Traumnovelle (talk) 08:24, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Wikilawyering - Try to win the argument fairly and squarely. Cats and Dogs are popular and comparable pets. They should be held to same standards - not double standards. Cinaroot  💬 08:31, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I've already told you 'it' is commonly used in academic works to refer to animals. The fact that dog does not do that is not a reason to change this article. Traumnovelle (talk) 19:46, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I’ll put up an rfc. They are sentient creatures. Not a it. Just because academics calling cats as it - doesn’t mean Wikipedia has to Cinaroot  💬 21:36, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

What has being sentient gotten to do with the logic of singular vs. plural ? -- BhagyaMani (talk) 04:14, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Not about singular vs plural. It is traditionally used for objects. They is commonly used for beings.

Humans are sentient beings, and they routinely use “they” when referring to other sentient beings, including animals they interact with and care about, such as pets. Cinaroot  💬 04:52, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Wikipedia follows the best sources, so it wouldn't make sense to deviate from academic writing in this specific way. -- Reconrabbit 14:42, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

This is about THE domestic cat, a species, not several, hence SINGULAR. BhagyaMani (talk) 08:18, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Dog article starts with The dog

See singular they - The cat - can be referred to as they. Eg. A domesticated cat shows adaptive behavior when they live in urban environments. Cinaroot  💬 08:26, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Species are referred to as 'it'. As in, all individual animals in the global population are being described as a whole. Individual populations of multiple cats can be described as 'they'. Use of the singular they (or he or she) to describe an animal is informal writing unless it is a specific individual animal. When the article on dogs uses 'they', it is describing multiple dogs, not just "dog (Canis familiaris)".-- Reconrabbit 14:41, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

We can follow the same suit and change to cats Cinaroot  💬 20:33, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

Saw this at NPOV/N - Agree with using plurals - "Cats are ...they" avoids the "it vs they" issue, without using the singular they. Hope this helps. Asteramellus (talk) 23:43, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

It does not. We refer to species in the singular. - UtherSRG (talk) 23:58, 14 January 2026 (UTC)

My edit here works. Its in line with dogs. In this article - we also use - cats and they. So its not like - its always it Cinaroot  💬 00:06, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

The edit did not have singular-plural agreement in several places. Let's come to a consensus here first. "Cats are obligate carnivores" is a good place to start - what is the general thought on this specific proposed change? -- Reconrabbit 03:08, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

You are welcome to improve it.

Seems like Reconrabbit, me and Asteramellus are ok to change to cats/they

But UtherSRG, BhagyaMani and Traumnovelle are against. Cinaroot  💬 03:13, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Referring to the species is probably better than 'it' and is what academic sources I am familiar with tend to prefer. My issue is with using the less formal 'they'. Traumnovelle (talk) 05:45, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Sure - for academics and scientist use it for objectivity and depersonalization.

However, Wikipedia is written for a general audience, not just academics. In that setting, referring to cats as “they” reads more naturally to most people and avoids treating sentient animals as impersonal objects. Cinaroot  💬 05:56, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and uses more formal writing instead of colloquial writing. A general audience can understand 'it' just fine here. Traumnovelle (talk) 06:01, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

I fully agree! And re being obligate carnivore is true for ALL individuals of the species, so of course it is an obligate carnivore is correct. BhagyaMani (talk) 04:07, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

If it's is true for all individuals of the species, the plural is more natural. In general, we should look at why we are using a pronoun and look at the sentence without the pronoun. "Cats are obligate carnivores" seems the best statement, which can use "they". Why use the singlar? Are we referring to a particular cat? An individual would probably use (s)he. Is "A cat is an obligate carnivore" implying that groups of cats are not? There seems little reason to use the singular in most cases.  —  Jts1882 | talk  09:40, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

If i can give a comparable example, the FA Oryzomys couesi follows a predictable formula and describes the species' habitat and ecology without using they at all in the introduction. This is what other editors are referring to when they say "true for all members of a species". -- Reconrabbit 12:04, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Exactly!! BhagyaMani (talk) 13:09, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

I think the key difference in opinion surrounds who the article is intended for. "It" fits if the article is for more academic readers (i.e. readers interested in zoology and taxonomy) whereas "they" is more accessible for a broader readership (i.e. those who understand "cat" more in the sense of a pet than in the sense of Felis catus).

To illustrate this, "they" is used more than "it" in articles like dog, hamster, mouse, cow, whereas "it" is used more than "they" in articles like coyote, stoat, black rat, and hippopotamus, though it's not a hard rule.

I don't think a change one way or another is like, super necessary, but I'd marginally prefer "they" as per @Cinaroot's edit because cats are among the dog, hamster, mouse, cow, set of familiar animals that attracts general, rather than zoological, interest, and making it more accessible to those readers, even marginally, is in the spirit of WP:JARGON. Semisalsa (talk) 17:00, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

No one is going to be unable to understand a passage because 'it' was used instead of 'they', this does not fall under jargon in the same way 'whom'--which is a word that is less and less common in colloquial language--does not fall under jargon. Traumnovelle (talk) 20:03, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Hence I was careful to write "in the spirit of" rather than "per" WP:JARGON. Again, I think it's not particularly harmful either way, but concise, common language is useful for quick comprehension. No one is going to completely misunderstand passages using "it" instead of "they", but general audiences may take an extra moment to parse potentially unfamiliar wording. For example, style guides recommend "use" instead of "utilize" in almost all cases not because "utilize" is incomprehensible, but because it's just a touch less concise than "use". Semisalsa (talk) 20:59, 15 January 2026 (UTC)

Agree that cats are as sentient as dogs, but not willing to engage in prolonged discussion on this. jp×g🗯️ 11:36, 18 January 2026 (UTC)

Same, I don't know why everyone's having an argument about it vs they, it's just different wording I'm pretty sure. ★ Campssitie (msg) (contribs) 04:42, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

@JPxG @Campssitie can you guys choose a side so we can settle the dispute 🐈 Cinaroot  💬 00:36, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Depends on if it's plural or singular for me on the article, if singular (example: "The cat") it's "it" and if it's plural (example: "Cats") it's "they". "They" is also a plural pronoun so I assume that. So I don't know, as someone with a cat. ★ Campssitie (msg) (contribs) 🧋🏖 01:33, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

I think people are divided on whether to use plural or singular for the article. OP suggests plural similar to dog or cow, others suggest singular similar to coyote and american bison. I think OP made an edit to change to plural and it was reverted, hence this discussion. Also, my cat per cat tax. Semisalsa (talk) 14:00, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

• I have boldly edited the intro, drastically reducing the use of singular "the cat" and replacing with plural "cats". I was unable to resist tweaking other things too, so here's the diff for inspection. I didn't look at the rest of the article. Yngvadottir (talk) 23:49, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  I think its an overall better change -- as I said earlier using the species name over any pronoun is preferred in academic writing (some contexts require a pronoun to avoid awkward wording) Traumnovelle (talk) 06:04, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  I really like this change. "Cats.../Cats are..." is a touch clearer than "The cat.../It is an..." when talking about general cat properties. "The cat/It" can be reserved for contexts where the singular species is important, e.g. taxonomy, phylogeny, evolution. Semisalsa (talk) 14:11, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  You shouldn't have, and I'm gong to revert back to singular. - UtherSRG (talk) 14:49, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  Ah... already reverted by another editor. - UtherSRG (talk) 14:49, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  Looks like there is consensus for this change now 🐈 Cinaroot  💬 15:03, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  No, there isn't. - UtherSRG (talk) 15:07, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  There are arguments that disagree with the use of "they" and arguments for it. Against is more focused on following academic practice in describing species. For is based on accessibility to a broader readership and percieved sentience of the animals. I disagree that using "they" would alleviate grammatical concerns - they do not exist if the species as a whole is being described and not just specific individuals or populations. -- Reconrabbit 15:50, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  Again I agree with you and thanks for your patience to explain your points over and over again !! BhagyaMani (talk) 20:21, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  As i already mentioned, "a species" is always singular, hence referred to as 'it'. This does not deny the perception of members of a particular species being sentient creatures : ALL cats are, no matter whether domestic, feral or wild, big or small ! If we talk or write about several individuals of a species, then of course we use 'they'. But in any case, I consider it poor writing style to intermix the use of 'it' and 'they' in one + same sentence or paragraph. BhagyaMani (talk) 20:22, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  The lead can be rewritten to refer to cats and use "they". Why did you then revert it? We still can use it to refer to the species if needed in body. 🐈 Cinaroot  💬 20:37, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  We shouldn't split our usage. If we can refer to the species as "it" in the body, then we can and should refer to the species as "it" in the lead. - UtherSRG (talk) 20:43, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

  There are cases where use of the singular 'it' is uncomfortable due to plural-like conventions on the English words referring to common domestic animals, like cattle, sheep, ox. This is not the case with cats, nor is it with dogs necessarily (look to the normal construction of the sentence The dog is the most popular pet in the United States, present in 34–40% of households. on that article, for example). -- Reconrabbit 20:52, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Uhm.. This argument (or discussion?) has been going on since Jan 13 (over a week! ^^), I think it depends on the sentence on the article. Singular? "it". Plural? "they". I'm not willing to argue about this, but I do appreciate it if someone has another opinion on my point or something.. Bye. ★ Campssitie (msg) (contribs) 🧋🏖 07:20, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

The discussion is about whether to change to plural from singular for some sentences in the lead, I think. Semisalsa (talk) 13:06, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

Adding a note: previously I argued for "cats/they" over "the cat/it" purely based on avoiding unnecessarily academic wording, similar to rationale in the CDC style guide to avoid "utilize". But I think I can see the point made by OP on sentience, after reading the Human article. It would be quite unnatural if the article read "The human is a..." and "It has a..." rather than "Humans are..." and "Humans have...", even though "The human/it" would be grammatically correct and align with academic sources.

Also, I think I was wrong on the usage splitting, and agree with BhagyaMani and UtherSRG that we probably shouldn't split our usage. The article should use all "cats/they" or all "the cat/it". Semisalsa (talk) 13:30, 21 January 2026 (UTC)

I.. kinda agree, as I stated maybe we should keep it "cat/it", although I would probably not care if it changed to "cats/they", or split depending on the sentence. ★ Campssitie (msg) (contribs) 🧋🏖 05:12, 22 January 2026 (UTC)