I’m a NE Hunter and currently have an owl. I guess I’m not sure how the math works out with the damage reduction from screech vs the extra DPS from a cat.
Is am owl better for chain pulling over the cats extra DPS?
Once you get higher in the talent tree, is it better to have a cat for higher attack speed for more procs?
Honestly the screeching is getting a little annoying, so I might just get a cat 
Cat. Faster attack speed means more reliable threat.
When you get to the Badlands, hunt for Brokentooth.
https://www.icy-veins.com/wow-classic/hunter-dps-pets-guide#sec-4
I would just use whatever you like. I know boars are good but I cant stand the noise they make.
But to answer your question if you do aoe pulls or do dungeons then the screech helps more than the cats dps.
But if you are just solo grinding and are beast spec the faster the attack speed the more chances for frenzy to proc. The faster you are mowing down mobs.
Its about the journey. Just pick a pet you enjoy. I am drawn to wolves so will probably have one of them by my side. Or even do something crazy like a wind serpent or scorpid.
Screech is great AoE threat, so if you are pulling multiple things it is great. it is also great single target threat.
But for leveling, use whatever you like.
For those of you who care, I did some math using rank 4 claw and bite. Have bite and claw over having just claw yields an additional 4.4% damage assuming 160 energy use. Without including the 3% damage buff cats have over owls.
To keep up with the Cat, Owls will have to have an additional 7.4% efficiency gain from screech to be worth it.
I don’t know enough about ap reduction to know, but I think on average cat is just better.
Like you guys have said though, aoe threat is pretty great.
Owl still tanks better from experience on several hunters so far.
Haha Night Elf.
Oh I mean yeah… great choice! But cats are better. So is Horde
Meaning they just hold aggro better? That’s definitely something to consider.
You can multi-pull with them and be pretty safe compared to a cat. However you lose the double stealth pvp surprise with an owl.
Cats get prowl too…if you are on a PVP server I don’t have to tell you how awesome prowl + shadowmeld is…