Pretty rude to put the dog on the table at a restaurant. No argument from me, they should not have done so, and you were within your rights to complain to the wait staff. I don’t even want my dog’s butt on the table that I will be dining at - let alone some other dog’s butt. As long as the wait staff washes off the table , even if its wood, I would consider that sufficient intervention. No need to burn the table - the dog’s butt isn’t that nasty.
I have seen more diaper changes at tables than dog butt. I’m not sure which would gross me out more. Both are pretty nasty.
How many of those diseases are likely to be infecting any given baby, that’s the question.
We’ve already got a cite for over one-third of dogs for just one type of parasite. It doesn’t matter if the baby can give you a hundred different diseases–if it’s only got a 1-in-1000 chance of having any of them, it’s still safer than the dog.
Someone let their DOG sit ON a RESTAURANT TABLE? WTF is wrong with people? Same with changing a baby’s diaper ON a LUNCH TABLE - WTF?!!
My now-husband and I were at the Hard Rock Cafe in Key West, FL sitting outside on the middle patio. I looked at the lower patio and saw a couple eating, then realized that the woman had a little dog on her lap. Little dog was sound asleep and it was the cutest thing.
But letting a dog sit ON TOP of a restaurant table? Rude and gross.
A wooden table outdoors has birds shitting on it all day, and god knows what climbing all over it at night. I promise you, a pampered dog’s ass is one of the cleaner things that surface has seen. I’m not saying it isn’t rude, but the idea that it will make you sick is stupid.
This is why I never, ever, ever pick up and eat any food that I’ve dropped on the table. It would take a famine before I’d eat that fry. At home, I know that nobody has had their goddamned dog on the table or has just sneezed on it, or changed their kid’s fucking diaper on it. But a restaurant? No way, hose A.
first, it was you that freaked the fuck out at even the barest mention of babies. But fine lets talk parasites. Roundworms. cite
So yes, even with parasites, humans are more likely to contract them from the fecal matter of another human. It’s estimated that 25 % of the world’s population are infected with roundworms and the number is 45% in Latin America (awful close to the US). Yes, you can get roundworms from dogs as you pointed out. I am not disputing that. But you are more likely to get them from a human, which makes your argument fall apart. Couple this with most dogs being continent and aproximately zero diapered babies being continent, and you are more likely to be exposed to whatever is in the baby’s fecal matter than what’s in the dog’s.
People, can we just not agree that anuses (ani?), genitals, and/or feces have no place on eating surfaces?
It doesn’t really matter if the anus in question belongs to a human infant, a dog, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Even if the anus was recently steam-cleaned and disinfected, there’s still an ingrained, autonomic disgust reaction from our lizard brains that screams “POOPIE! POOPIE BAD!”
Whoops, turns out that my site is to the human roundworm Ascaris lumbricoides, which doesn’t live in dogs anyway! So that 25% of the world population has a source from just humans. Canine roundworms are Toxocara canis and Toxocara leonina. They can also be transferred to humans (though it’s not their favorite host), but Ascaris is the one you usually see in the human gut.
I don’t really think I freaked the fuck out. Your mileage may vary, and obviously does.
I suppose Latin America is physically sort of close to the US in that it’s in the same hemisphere on the globe, and I do believe that infection with parasites is common in these countries. However this fact is meaningless when asking what the typical parasite load is for human populations in the US.
No, not really. You have shown that humans in third world countries have roundworm. You are not more likely to get them from a human in the United States. You are incorrect.
Just to make things clear, I think that changing a baby on a table is beyond gross - it is unhygenic and should never be done. And I’m not suggesting that a dog on a table would be incontinent, and would shit on the table. I’m suggesting that when it sits on the table, it’s bare, unwiped asshole would come in contact with the table surface, which is not a good thing.
I agree that people should not change their babies or let their dogs walk and sit on any public eating tables (or home tables, but I mind my own beeswax on that). But, again, if we are talking about an outside table, I promise you, rats run across it at night. Sewer rats, from the drain. And stray cats. And birds shit on it. And who knows what else. And it is gross to think about. But, most people have eaten at a table like that, and they don’t get sick from it. Is it a “good thing”? Of course not! But, it probably isn’t going to kill you either.
Oh for Christ sakes. Did you even read the link? Here you go:
Did you also pay attention to how the canine roundworm is a different species than the human one and doesn’t do well in the human host? Nope, I bet you didn’t.
So… We have a report of 52% of dogs in the US infected with canine roundworm, vs. 0.8% of humans infected with human roundworm.
And did you read about the canine roundworm causing Ocular larva migrans when roundworm larvae migrate into the human eye? Nasty. Or, because the human is not the usual host for the canine roundworm, the larvae tend to not reside in the gut where they are relatively easy to get rid of with medication, but rather migrate in the organs, a disease called visceral larva migrans. Nastier.
