I would probably get all kinds of diseases if I sniffed every bare asshole from every mammal I meet, humans included. I’d definitely get sick if I sniffed a dozen random turds a day. But dogs can do it without any apparent issues. Not only that, but they can do it across different species of animal, too.

What dark arts are afoot within the beak of the dog?

  • CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world
    182·
    1 day ago

    Something being stinky or something being a germ doesn’t automatically mean they can harm you. Lots and lots of bacteria exist that can’t hurt you that you’d find in a digestive tract, and maybe a few that could, especially if you ate them. Beyond that, lots of things like scent particles are airborne but not all harmful germs are airborne, a few are but this is very uncommon in the digestive tract, as long as you don’t consume them, they’re not going to harm you in almost every case.

    If something was coming out of your butt that could genuinely harm people just from inhaling you would likely be a very sick person with a pretty rare and probably scary infection.

    Lots of the stink from the digestive tract is also not from germs at all, that’s just what food smells like once it’s broken down, same as if you left it in the fridge and it rotted and got stinky.