How Many of You Let Your Pets Lick the Dishes?

[rebelcowboysnb]

Your body has a hard time fighting something it has never seen before.

Yep. Smallpox tetanus an polio are all things that we were naturally immunized to till the "clean" age.

 

[OldGuy43]

My dogs eat from any plate on the floor an will touch nothing that is not, no matter how easy to reach.

They also have a pare of shoes that are for them to chew on. The do not touch any others...

Our rescue German Pointer did steal a whole roast off the kitchen counter once shortly after she came home with us. (We have yet to figure out how she slipped it out of the house without being seen.

) She has now learned the rules and waits patiently for us to hand her the plates. She's 7-10 years old, we think. Her muzzle's grey anyway.

I will never understand why the human race has evolved to be so fearful of germ. Study's have shown that our fear of anything "dirty" has destroyed our immune system. Yet we still wash everything over an over, an no longer let kids be kids. We then inject dead germs in to our selves to give us immunity to things that we would have been immuned to naturally before.

Agree most whole heartedly.

 

[Bunnylady]

Yep. Smallpox tetanus an polio are all things that we were naturally immunized to till the "clean" age.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's back the bus up here. Lots of people died of tetanus, smallpox and polio; they never got a chance to get "naturally immunized." People died like flies from a lot of different diseases,or just diarrhea caused by the bacteria and parasites that are common in unsanitary conditions. They still do in "third world" countries; that sort of thing is one of the huge challenges when dealing with refugees from war or natural disasters. If you go through old graveyards, you will often see headstones for several members of the same family that were buried within days of each other - a lot of those are because of diseases that were "making the rounds".

Are we "too clean"? Probably. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater!

 

[sourland]

What, I go away to see my friend the dentist and you guys get all serious on me? I'm out of here.

 

[Bunnylady]

Sour, have you ever know us - well, me - to stay serious for long?

 

[OldGuy43]

We've kinda gotten off topic here, but since I'm the OP and don't mind... When was the last time you saw kids making mud pies. OldGal tells about making them with "chocolate chips" from the hen house. She crammed one down her twin sister's throat.

Now THAT IS GROSS!!!


One of my fondest memories as a child was being licked by my dog. I even used to sit with him in his doghouse on cold days.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
People die. That is life. But it is well documented that the huge explosion in deaths from these illnesses are linked to cleanliness killing the immune system.

People that worked in the dirt an let there kids play an eat dirt did not usually get tetanus or polio. An farmers with cows did not usually get smallpox.

People would have still died from these things but not by the millions. It exploded.

 

[sourland]

Old Guy = incorrigible.

My kids were champs at 'mudpie' creation - much to the chagrin of my 'city girl' wife. Don't think they ate them, but one time my son forced a dog spit covered tennis ball into his sister's mouth. Plain and simple bottom line - she deserved it. No punishment issued just a request for no repeat performances.

 

[Bunnylady]

Oldguy, when my son was a toddler, I frequently caught him picking spilled rabbit food off the floor of the rabbitry and eating it.

And as for mud pies, at one point I told my mother I was thinking of taking all of my (then toddling) daughter's clothes and dyeing them black, because I couldn't ever get them clean any more!

Quote: People that worked in the dirt an let there kids play an eat dirt did not usually get tetanus or polio. An farmers with cows did not usually get smallpox.
Very small sample group, I agree - but my mother had smallpox as a child. Her mother didn't catch it, possibly because she was the one who milked the cow.

 

[SD Bird Lady]

We dont have any house pets but I always take whatever pot/pan is dirtiest (the one I dont really want to wash) scrape all the plates into that pan and then put it out on the step to be eaten buy whomever is hungriest/gets there first. Usually the dog eats followed by the cat then the chickens get anything left behind. It is amazing what the animals keep out of the landfill.