i made the experience that people who dont like animals, be it cats, dogs or whatever are generally assholes. had to work with someone and we started to smalltalk and he told me he didnt like dogs - i didnt even wonder, i didnt like him before - his whole attitude was like "everybody is against me!".
on the other side its always nice and easy to get to talk to someone who has an animal him- or especially herself.
somewhere around here there was already found a piece of bacon in the field with nails in it so that a dog would get hurt. how sick can people get?