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The MLA is something of a Johnny-come-lately, perhaps therefore hewing to dated standards for presumed credibility...though I suspect for you nothing that veers from what you were taught in grammar school will suffice."
The MLA is older than the Chicago Manual, but that's beside the point. The Chicago Manual is also incorrect on some punctuation. Birds don't really communicate. Your ad hominem didn't help your argument, either. Try a study of of the logical fallacies. As for personalizing cats or otherwise staying too close,...
Parasite makes men dumb, women sexy The Sydney Morning Herald ^ | 12/26/06
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A common parasite can increase a women's attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says. About 40 per cent of the world's population is infected with Toxoplasma gondii, including about eight million Australians. Human infection generally occurs when people eat raw or undercooked meat that has cysts containing the parasite, or accidentally ingest some of the parasite's eggs excreted by an infected cat."
“The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2008) is the third edition of The MLA Style Manual, first published by the Modern Language Association of America in 1985”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_MLA_Style_ManualBirds don’t communicate?
And there’s nothing in the use of ‘who’ that suggests a person. It suggests a sentient agent, which is what an animal is, without implying an animal is a person.
And I stand by my view that you are ever stuck to this arbitrary and illogical rule that you were taught in grade school. There’s no other reasonable explanation for becoming a grammar police for a dated and now little-used rule.