I understand it only takes a few bad apples to ruin the entire industry, but most of the time the grass is not greener on the other side.  

Cats may also have claws that will ruin things (but usually that just tends to be the case with furniture), have hairballs and accidents.  

But... there are reasons (drugs) that someone would ruin their credit like that.  

Cheap laminate + accident = ruined laminate.

They will probably ruin parts of the home so account for this.

If you do what you are thinking of, it will probably ruin you financially.Go out and invest in real estate.  

That what's going to happen is police involvement and a court eviction that will ruin their credit (hopefully that's true or something like it where you live). 

However, that being said, in EVERY scenario where the tenant had a pet (dog or cat), we found a lot more damage than normal wear and tear (horrible smells, ruined  or scratched carpet, pee smell in the wood flooring that was impossible to get rid of, etc).  

Being that one of the tenants is a professional I doubt he would allow anything to happen that would ruin his name and credibility.

Our properties are 2 and 3 stories (~3K sq ft) and dogs pretty much stink / ruin floors however, responsible pet owners willing to pay fees typically have been good long term tenants.