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Is having a cat in a house actually good hiegene? I mean they lick their butt, and then an owner kisses the face that was licking it.
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Hygiene?
- Thread starter dualopamp
- Start Date
Are you kidding or serious? Cats are some of the cleanest animals on earth, and humans certainly don't rank up there in the hygiene arena. Just go into any public restroom and you can see that humans are infinitely more disgusting than any animal.
If that's a serious question - Why did you join a cat welfare board if you think they are dirty and don't even think they should be in a house?
If that's a serious question - Why did you join a cat welfare board if you think they are dirty and don't even think they should be in a house?
Cats are much cleaner than humans. I have had cats all my life and have never been sick from kissing them, yes, even on the mouth
But, you wouldn't catch me going around just kissing any human
. A cats mouth is MUCH cleaner than a humans, they have a natural antiseptic in their mouth. You should always wash your hands after cleaning the litter box however.
Cats definitly are clean! Strange question.
No, technically it isn't good hygiene. I mean, you wouldn't want to see a cat or a dog in the kitchen of a public restaurant, would you? But it is how you train that animal and behave with it that influences whether it really is a problem with hygiene or not for any individual or family. You don't have to kiss that cat. You can wash your hands after petting it, before you eat or touch your face. You can train it to keep off the table and kitchen counters. And you can wipe off the counters and table to be sure all hair and other particles which floated through the air are removed before using those areas for food preparation or eating. If you do the above, where is the risk?
People are too bacteriaphobic (is that a word
). I never use any type of strong cleaners, like disinfectants, it isn't needed. Even with feeding my bobcats RAW chicken, I rinse my hands in warm water. My house is clean, but you will never see me using those strong cleaners. The cleaners will make you sick well before any bacteria. If people only knew how they are poisoning themselves with all these cleaners, you would never use them again. Cats are clean, even on the counters, stove, sink....
Sorry, but after seeing all those bacteria grow in college bacteriology lab, after getting ill from food at picnics, potlucks, etc., much more readily than other folks, and after having e-coli for five weeks (and losing 20 pounds with it) before the doctors determined what my problem was (and needing to stay within six seconds of the toilet all that time), I am VERY cautious in the kitchen. And I rarely eat at a potluck any more, as I suspect many others are not as cautious as I am.
Two of my cats are allowed outside. We feed the birds. Deer come through the yard daily, raccoons frequently, and coyotes and bear occasionally. We see droppings around. So no, I definitely do not think the cats' paws are sufficiently clean to be allowed on the counters, stove or sink, regardless of their cleaning them.Originally Posted by AmberThe Bobcat
. . . Cats are clean, even on the counters, stove, sink....
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
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He was talking about soap, not any cleaner. Soap is, simply, a polar molecule that daggers into a grease molecule, and polarly attract to water molecules, releasing the greese from whatever the soap was put on. This would not make people sick. Instead, the bacteria resides in the grease, which the soap lifts up.
Getting ill at a picnic or potluck had nothing to do with the area being dirty. The main reason was the improper food storage. I am sure you got sick from potato or macaroni salad. That stuff can go bad very quickly in the summer if left out for only a short period of time. Of course if you eat food that has gone bad, you will get sick, especially if you have a low immune system.
Ummm, I know what soap is. But, too many people don't use just soap. There are so many people who use those very toxic "germ killing" cleaners. You see the commercials every day on TV. Air sanitizers that kill bacteria in the air. Now, what is more harmful, breathing air that has bacteria in it, which your immune system was designed to get rid of, or breathing a toxic chemical designed to kill bacteria? Or what about the company that shows a baby eating his food. The baby throws some of his food and you see his mother wipe it up with an "sanitizing cleaner". Now, why would you do that? Just wipe it up with plain soap and water. Did you ever see what is in those sanitizers? Those chemicals will kill you or make you sick long before the bacteria will. People get sick because many have compromised their immune systems. Smoking, for one, stops your body's main defense agaisnt air born disease. The lung's cleaning system is destroyed and bacteria and viruses enter. On top of that, add breathing in deadly chemicals and you can see why we have so many illnesses. Now, I am not saying don't clean up, especially if you are handling raw meats. But, plain old soap and water will do the job, no need for "sanitizers". I don't let my cats outside, except when the bobs go out on a leash and harness, so I don't worry about their paws. If they did go outside, they would still be allowed up on the counters, but I am sure I would wipe them down before any food was placed on or near them. But, no sanitizers.
I'm retired now, but was trained as a home economist. I taught foods classes for years. So I am well aware of how food poisoning occurs. It is, incidentally, a fallacy that foods which contain mayonnaise are most likely to cause food poisoning. Mayonnaise contains enough acid to slow down bacterial growth. If macaroni or potato salad are the offending foods (and you are right, they often are), it is because they contain eggs, a protein food, and because these are foods which require a lot of handling in preparation. But any food which requires a great deal of handling can be the offending food, especially if they contain protein. Some bacteria, such as salmonella, clostridium perfringens, listeria, bacillus cereus, and e-coli may be present in the food to start. If properly cooked and produce properly washed, most bacteria will be killed or removed, though some do survive and can cause illness, especially if the food is improperly stored.
But humans introduce additional bacteria into the food with handling.
Many people have had food poisoning without even realizing it. I learned in one college foods class that what people refer to as "24-hour flu" is often a mild case of food poisoning.
Oh, and "in the summer" here is not like most places. On the coast here, we often don't have more than about a dozen days a year that the temperature reaches even 70 degrees.
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Mr. Bobcat, you eat table salt, do you not? The cleaners, bacically, use table salt to clean the area. Why? Table salt is sodium chloride. Chlorine is the dangerous stuff. Once again, why? Chlorine has seven valence electrons, making it easy to ionicly bond with many substances. So, if you spray it at, let's say staphobacteria floating through the air, it dissolves the lipid membrane surrounding the bacteria. This is what kills the bacteria, but it doesn't kill you, nor does it get you sick. You eat table salt, it's broken down into sodium and chloride, but you don't get sick from that. Because it only harms you in great amounts. My goodness, you dive into the stuff every time you go swimming in a pool.
Come into the canteen where i work and look at the hands of some of the men here who sit and eat, compare that to my cats room where their litter, food and water are and i can tell you now that the cats will come out as the cleanest!!.
Ok, you can come here and I wlll spray bleach in the air so you can breathe it...get a clue
I noticed that this never did get answered......so I think its safe to assume that it was done just to annoy cat lovers?
Certainly got a reaction!
I agree that we are too germophobic! I grew up on a farm where we pulled carrots and turnips right out of the ground, wiped them on our pants and ate them, we tended to the farm animals and probably didn't wash our hands terribly well before eating. Now bear in mind that dad had spread cow manure all over this area before he planted these vegetables.
As a kid, none of us were sick (except for measles and mumps), none of us had ear infections, none of us had allergies, and I could go on. Our bodies were ALLOWED to build up immunities to bacteria and germs. Our kids nowadays are not allowed to do that because parents are TOO worried about germs. You are right about the chemicals - just spray more chemicals into the air and let them breathe that - it's better! YEAH, RIGHT!
I agree that we are too germophobic! I grew up on a farm where we pulled carrots and turnips right out of the ground, wiped them on our pants and ate them, we tended to the farm animals and probably didn't wash our hands terribly well before eating. Now bear in mind that dad had spread cow manure all over this area before he planted these vegetables.
As a kid, none of us were sick (except for measles and mumps), none of us had ear infections, none of us had allergies, and I could go on. Our bodies were ALLOWED to build up immunities to bacteria and germs. Our kids nowadays are not allowed to do that because parents are TOO worried about germs. You are right about the chemicals - just spray more chemicals into the air and let them breathe that - it's better! YEAH, RIGHT!
Well, I was told in PM that he isn't an animal lover and that I was "rude" to him. What, me rude after he insults us cat lovers???
