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Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's diatribe against cats and their owners appears to employ similar arguments to those advanced in John Haldane's diatribe against researchers: both assume an "either/or" rather than a "both/and" approach ("A dog's dinner of an idea," 18 February).

Both scholars have clearly exaggerated their points to provoke a discussion, but the less exciting truth is that some of us like cats and dogs, and some of us - perhaps the same group - like research and teaching. In either case, the comparisons are odious: some cats are killers and some research is pointless, but the opposite is also true.

Mary Brown (cat owner/dog lover), Department of management, Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University.