A life-long acquaintance has been diagnosed with a disease infecting his lungs and untreatable with today’s drugs. The doctors told him it is a disease people get from dogs. The acquaintance has always lived in close quarters with his dogs. The disease is preventing a heart operation that he needs to survive. Perhaps under-reporting such diseases in the past has led to the perception that pets living in close environments with people carries no risk.
If you review medical literature, you will find that most people are allergic to pet dander, yet I know people who give their kids allergy shots and medication without removing in-house pets and without testing for allergy causes. For two generations, Americans have been raised with cute animal stories and the concept that animals are humans in another form. Prior to WWII and antibiotics, sulfa drugs and steroids, people associated filth with disease because disease often meant death. People kept animals outside, because it was impossible to keep a clean environment with inside pets. That knowledge disappeared with the drugs that appeared 70 years ago; now many of the old infectious diseases are reappearing in a drug-resistant form.
What is the truth? Do we trust medical professionals more than anyone else? We are all biased toward animals, but wishful thinking and ignorance can still kill you.
