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Comment by marcosdumay | Hacker News Reader

This.

Animals in nature are incredibly healthy. You won't see any with even a deep cut.

Isn't that because the ones who aren't healthy die? That sounds like saying we shouldn't bother having modern medicine because it causes us to have a lot more sick people. The problem is we wouldn't have a lot more healthy people that way; we'd have a lot more dead people.

That's exactly what the comment I was replying to said.

An alternative explanation is that nature is some peaceful place where no animal ever gets hurt, for any reason... What would be a purely comedic exercise if people weren't believing this one all over the thread.

It is. This subthread is clearly ironic.

All my cats, dogs, horses & chickens have all been drinking rain & groundwater.

They've never died of any infectious disease, nor needed treatment.

Have they ever had the runs? Giardia can be fatal to puppies and sick dogs.

The danger isn't rainwater. It is stagnant water and running water that has been contaminated. Both are more of a problem in rural and wilderness where there are animals that have been contaminated.

Hmmm, most of my friends' animals (pets) kept at home, medicated, fed "pet food" and "clean" water, tend to be significantly sicker than my outside-kept animals, and always seem to have a short lifespan. They have certainly had the runs more often than my outside-only-"kept" animals. My cats literally drink stagnant water every single day, algae, bacteria, various protozoa and all. The safety'ism in HN is out of control.

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