Dogs are certainly not seen as being man’s best friend if you live in the Icelandic capital city of Reykjavik. In fact, it is cats that are the absolute leader when it comes to all of this, and it is all to do with something that goes back almost a century.
For over 60 years, pet dogs were actually banned for a whole host of reasons. Even though the ban was ended in 1984, it is still very tough for anybody to go ahead and have a dog as a pet. This is because there are a whole host of requirements including getting a special permit.
It was not because they hated dogs that they banned them. It was brought into action at a time where the town was still very rural and there was a housing shortage to contend with. The authorities came to the conclusion that it would somehow be useful if they went ahead and banned dogs as pets because then you could get more humans into a space rather than it being taken up by a dog.
You have to admit that this is a completely different theory to most places and it is still unknown as to how effective it was as a plan. However, the idea of dogs being guilty of taking up space still holds today which is why they do still prefer the cat over and above any other animal.