I woke up this morning to find a loaf of bread laying on the floor in my living room. It was still wrapped but there are hundreds of little claw holes in it. Cursory inspection indicates that all the slices have holes in them. Some have tears rather than holes. That damn cat!
Should I eat this bread? Out of defiant hunger, I ate two of the slices. Am I going to die now? Would you eat this bread? The bread is not that expensive; I can replace it easily. But that’s wasteful and sends the wrong message to my cat.
I would eat it, but then, I have little to no fear of germs. If it makes you feel better, I have a cat who likes to sneak up on me while I’m sleeping and jam his paw into my mouth. I have yet to get sick from it.
Your cat does not care about any message you try to send him, or lesson you try to teach.
I wouldn’t eat it. As much as I’m not afraid of my kitty’s germs (I fill my water glass from the tap the cat drinks out of), he’s used those little paws in the litter box.
What if you toast it or make grilled sammiches with it? Then the cat doesn’t win and you get the security of knowing you nuked whatever microscopic beasties might have been lurking about.
I would trim all the crusts and toss that, then I would put the remainder in a plastic container that the cat can’t chew through and eat the bread eventually. Or make croutons.
Then again that’s a lot of work so I’d probably throw it out.
I have known some cats that learn that food is kept in plastic bags and they will chew on anything in a plastic bag. My parents had a cat that chewed on every apple and potato in a big bag of apples/potatoes. Now how stupid is that? “Blech! This one tastes like a fruit/vegetable, too! Maybe if I try the next one? Blech! Maybe the next one? Blech! One of these has to taste like meat, I’ll try that one! Blech!”
I wouldn’t eat it; ever hear of cat scratch disease/cat scratch fever ? If you can get it from a scratch, it’s quite possible you can get it from something that has been scratched. Besides, it’s just a loaf of bread; buy a new one.
It might not be claw marks - maybe he was nibbling at it. My cat loves the taste of bread crust. If I buy a fresh loaf of French bread and leave it on the table, I’ll come back a second later when I hear crinkling, and find his little face smooshed into the open end of the bag, licking at the end of the baguette.
I have to hack off the bit he’s licked and give it to him, because I’m not going to eat that!
So yeah, I’d probably throw out the bread full of holes. Not that I’m actually worried about disease or anything, but just out of a general sense of “icky”.
I’d probably trash it and get a new loaf. The Sausage Creature had a cat when she still lived at home that got into a bag of rice and spread it all over the carpet when my vacuum cleaner was broken. I think that’s why his name was Spawn of Satan.
Stomach acid doesn’t destroy everything; that’s one reason why rotten food makes us sick, as opposed to vultures, who have much stronger acid. Yes, it’s unlikely to be as dangerous as a scratch ( which isn’t all that dangerous, anyway ), but why take the risk for a loaf of bread ?
Cat scratch fever is transmitted through scratches and bites. You don’t get sick from that organism by eating it (that I’ve been able to find).
That said, yes, there are plenty of germs on a cat’s paw. But if you think about it, you are already exposed to those things every day just by living with the cat. Does your cat sit on your furniture, get into bed with you, cruise the counters? If so, you’ve probably ingested plenty of germs that came off of your cat’s paws. That’s why I doubt eating this bread is an unusually significant risk.
I’d toss it (with extreme predjudice.) But then, I’m the only person I know who’s needed emergency surgery for an 8 fluid ounce deep neck abscess caused by kitty claw pathogens.
(I could poke half a q-tip into my neck for nearly 3 weeks after that.)
I think that’s why his name was Spawn of Satan. 