Why can my dog feast for weeks on a deer carcass in the woods, but people worry about getting food poisoning?

Question

People are supposed to be so careful not letting food get spoiled which could make us sick, but a dog can eat from a deer carcass that's been out in the woods for a few weeks. What gives?

Answer 1

Many good answers here, but as an ethologist whose main interest is canid behavior, I will speak to this. Saliva and stomach enzymes are mainly responsible for the ability of carnivores, such as dogs, to "cut up" pathogenic invaders better than we. That, coupled with not only a powerful sense of smell, but a discerning one. Dogs are opportunity scavengers, evolutionarily, so these more powerful saliva and stomach enzymes were naturally evolved. Those wolves that could make better use of scavenged food left more descendants, who had this ability. These were also the larger, better feed, alpha wolves, on average. So, not every dog is going to be such a successful scavenger.

Answer 2

I am an MD. This is an interesting question that I have wondered about myself. There are many factors that you should consider when evaluating this question. First of all, food poisoning is caused by pathogenic organisms, not ordinary germs. Pathogens are spread from person to person, and in the case of humans, this means via hands, and usually via the so called "fecal-oral pathway". When you go to the bathroom (#2) virtually everyone gets some germs on their hands while wiping, even if you don't think you did, you did. These germs then make their way into the food chain. However, a small amount of them usually won't cause disease in most people, even when eaten, but if you let your contaminated food sit out long enough for the pathogens to multiply, then you might have a problem. This will also happen in the refrigerator, but much slower due to the colder temperatures. But the bottom line is, it is somewhat of a matter of dose, or how many you get exposed to at one time. Getting back to your animal carcass, it should be clear that it has never been touched by human hands and so it is not contaminated with pathogens. Germs, yes, but pathogens, no. I had a friend once who had a newfoundland dog, and he taught him to poop in the toilet. But he could never teach him how to wipe, nor flush. So dogs have a little advantage over us in this way. They also don't carry their food around with their hands and store it like we do.
Another factor is that animals in the wild are always young and always healthy. This is because if either of these factors escapes them then they are soon dead. The young and healthy are usually fairly indestructable, but this is not the case with most humans, since we are often older, and/or immunocompromised in some manner.
Another factor is the canine sense of smell, which is approximately 10,000 times stronger than a human's, literally. The canine sense of smell is so keen that a dog named Balto delivered medicine to a town in Nome, Alaska by pure smell of the 50 miles of trail, even in a blinding blizzard with a constant 30 mile per hour wind blowing, and over 2 feet of snow on the ground. My point is that if the carcass starts to smell a little funky, then he won't eat it, even if it smells absolutely HORRIBLE to you. Your human sense of smell can't tell "smells horrible" from "SMELLS HORRIBLE", but he can tell. He is capable of dividing "horrible" into 10,000 different cagegories, some of which are safe and some are not. There are other factors as well, such as stomach acid, IgA antibodies, etc. etc. but I don't want to drone on and on........

Answer 3

The reason why a human would (and should be) concerned about eating raw or spoiled meat is because we can get sick from it because our bodies have not built up an immunological response... but here's the catch, if we ate raw or spoiled meat on a regular basis we would become immune to or tolerant of any ill effects cause by eating it (excepting of course parasites or disease). It is the same with dogs, a spoiled house pet who has never eaten anything but dog kibble would get just as sick as a human would from eating raw or rotting meat.. but a hardy, woods wise working dog like a sled or hunting camp dog would be used to eating such things and would not be prone to ill effects because thier body would over time build up immunity. People in this day and age are scared of bacteria, germs etc and so they try to limit thier exposure to protect against such things, in reality this only makes you more vulnerable in the future because your body has no tolerance built up to protect itself. Obvious evidence suggests that humans were once capable of eating raw and spoiled meat before we mastered fire, and before we knew how to hunt it is believed we were scavengers that most likely fed on any carcass. There are people in this world today who enjoy eating raw, uncooked, fermented and in some cases still living creatures without ill effect simply because they are used to eating such things. Inuit eat raw fish and meat quite often and do not get sick but most of us would certainly feel ill if we ate the same thing, it all comes down to exposure... if you expose yourself often to eating such things your body will eventually adapt, if you dont expose yourself you will get sick when you eat such things.

Answer 4

The immune system of a dog and a human are radicaly diffrent. A human will never get sick from SHF, a ebola like disease that affects only monkeys, will not cause sickness in a human. Think about it, monkeys and humans are relatively closely related, a dog is much, much more dissimilar, and therefore won't get sick from many things that we get sick from. Also, some viruses and bacteria can only infect certain kinds of cells that have a specific protien on the surface of the cell, our cells may have that protien, but chances are, a dog won't.

Answer 5

Its all to do with the intestinal track of a dogs stomach. Dogs are pretty responsive to rotting meat because they cant smell, so they just think they have stummbled across a Cour' don' Bluer meal. Its not till they honk up in your front room and Sh*t everywhere that they realise something is wrong. But being a dog and having a brain memory the size of a garden pea, they soon forget it. Dont worry, your not the first to discover this fact

Answer 6

A outside dog will not eat any thing that will hurt them . A dog that eats something hurts them or kills them is most likely a inside dog , where they have been pampered . All dogs use to live outside , so maybe it's a survival thing. I have had dogs all my life and lucky to live where they can rome unchained or in a pen .

Answer 7

the digestive fluid of a dog is stronger than that of a human and that kill the harmfull bactiria that makes us sick

Answer 8

We have different digestive systems

Answer 9

I'll bet your dog has worms.