there's also the obvious fact that a cat isn't a credible threat to a human. there's no point in "punishing" a creature that weighs 15-25 times as much as you do. would you try to "punish" an elephant if you were unarmed? conversely, any creature that a cat can credibly deter is not a lethal threat to a human. I imagine a large dog understands, at least on some level, that it can actually win a fight against a human. small dogs seem to believe the same thing, just incorrectly.

it would be interesting to study how/if cats defend other cats against roughly cat-sized threats.