4 ms·

> It's nowhere near as pungent and generally has more of a grassy sort of smell. Oh I dispute that! I grew up in a small town that offered horse-drawn carriage

> It's nowhere near as pungent and generally has more of a grassy sort of smell. Oh I dispute that! I grew up in a small town that offered horse-drawn carriage rides for the tourists. You could smell that shit for miles.

cogman10 1y ago
I also grew up in a small town and it could be I'm nose blind to it. To me, pig and sheep were the worst smelling farm animals. Everything else, cows, horses, etc were just "meh". There's a smell, but it's not like stepped in dog poop smell. Even driving past cattle feed lots I don't generally notice too much of a bad smell.
- RajT88 1y ago
  I grew up on the edge of the suburbs (huge city, but one with lots of cornfields on the periphery). Plenty of visits to local farms. This describes where I live now as well, where occasionally horses wander past on the street, and we get to deal with their shit by the street. Cow manure is put on the fields in spring. Yeah, "grassy" is a word for it. But it still smells like shit. Less horrid than dog shit, but it's marginal. As far as dogs being dirty - mine won't eat animal shit, either because she is not interested or because she picks up that we wouldn't like it (surprising, actually, how attuned she is to things we don't like). But she does not care at all about touching her own shit. She'll walk in it, throw it around after pooping when she is scratching the grass.
  - cogman10 1y ago
    I will say that spreading cow manure, especially since it's wetted beforehand, does really stink.
- vee-kay 1y ago
  You all have clearly never smelled cat pee and cat poop. Now that is pungent and nauseating. I like cats, but their pee and poop make me cringe. Studies show that cat urine contains more concentrated urea and ammonia than other pets’ urine, making it especially pungent. High Concentration of Waste: Cat urine is highly concentrated due to their evolution from desert-dwelling ancestors. This adaptation allows them to absorb more water, resulting in urine that contains a higher concentration of waste products. Breakdown of Urea: When cat urine sits in a litter box, bacteria begin to break down urea, a component of urine. This process releases ammonia, which contributes to the strong, unpleasant odor. Presence of Mercaptans: As urine decomposes, it also produces mercaptans, sulfur compounds that emit a skunky smell. This intensifies the overall odor of cat urine over time. Hormonal Influence: Unneutered male cats produce urine with a stronger smell due to hormones used for marking territory. Unspayed females also have potent-smelling urine, especially when in heat.
  - floren 1y ago
    Did you prompt an LLM for a list of reasons why cat waste smells bad? If so, why did you think it was a good idea to paste that here?
    - vee-kay 1y ago
      I just did a quick search for "why cat pee is so pungent", and pasted the info here, since it felt relevant to this discussion.
      - hilbert42 1y ago
        My grandmother didn't like the neighbors' male cats because they used to pee on her vegetable garden. Once peed upon the smell was so bad you'd chuck the vegetable out (no amount of washing would remove it).
        cogman10 1y ago
        We never had that problem with our cats. They left the garden alone for the most part. The one thing I'll say about the stinky cat, it keeps rodents away better than anything else. The cats at my parents' house eventually died off and when that happened the mice started invading the house. Once they bought some more cats, the mouse problem went away again.
    - hilbert42 1y ago
      "Did you prompt an LLM for a list of reasons why cat waste smells bad?" Don't know about vee-kay but most of those facts I learned from my grandmother, it's pretty common knowledge. The remainder—mercaptans—I learned in o-chem. LLMs not necessary.
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  I raised my last dog on a raw meat, bones, and organs diet. His poops were much smaller, less smelly, and broke down much faster (compared to spells where I had him on regular dog food). In fact, I could tell what he'd eaten by smelling his poop, not that I did that intentionally... "Yep, that's chicken all right!" Ironically, it wasn't smellier when the food was "spoiled" (by my standards, "greatly improved with aging" was his take). My point is only: we've accidentally engineered their food for maximum disgustingness on egress.
  - hilbert42 1y ago
    Right, but dogs are nevertheless somewhat discriminating. When a kid, I fed my dog on butcher's off-cuts which I'd get for free. Usually they'd be meaty and fresh enough for us humans to eat (but we never had need and ate better). Occasionally, the butcher gave me meat that whilst not 'off' was a little stale and had a trace of smell about it and my dogs noticed the fact. They'd eat it with reluctance and or only when very hungry. A quick and almost miraculous solution was to pour boiling water over the meat which would turn its outside grey or brownish (it being still raw in the middle). The dogs would then instantly eat it, in fact I had to be careful to let it cool down so they wouldn't scold themselves.

cogman10 1y ago

I also grew up in a small town and it could be I'm nose blind to it. To me, pig and sheep were the worst smelling farm animals. Everything else, cows, horses, etc were just "meh". There's a smell, but it's not like stepped in dog poop smell. Even driving past cattle feed lots I don't generally notice too much of a bad smell.

RajT88 1y ago
I grew up on the edge of the suburbs (huge city, but one with lots of cornfields on the periphery). Plenty of visits to local farms. This describes where I live now as well, where occasionally horses wander past on the street, and we get to deal with their shit by the street. Cow manure is put on the fields in spring. Yeah, "grassy" is a word for it. But it still smells like shit. Less horrid than dog shit, but it's marginal. As far as dogs being dirty - mine won't eat animal shit, either because she is not interested or because she picks up that we wouldn't like it (surprising, actually, how attuned she is to things we don't like). But she does not care at all about touching her own shit. She'll walk in it, throw it around after pooping when she is scratching the grass.
- cogman10 1y ago
  I will say that spreading cow manure, especially since it's wetted beforehand, does really stink.
vee-kay 1y ago
You all have clearly never smelled cat pee and cat poop. Now that is pungent and nauseating. I like cats, but their pee and poop make me cringe. Studies show that cat urine contains more concentrated urea and ammonia than other pets’ urine, making it especially pungent. High Concentration of Waste: Cat urine is highly concentrated due to their evolution from desert-dwelling ancestors. This adaptation allows them to absorb more water, resulting in urine that contains a higher concentration of waste products. Breakdown of Urea: When cat urine sits in a litter box, bacteria begin to break down urea, a component of urine. This process releases ammonia, which contributes to the strong, unpleasant odor. Presence of Mercaptans: As urine decomposes, it also produces mercaptans, sulfur compounds that emit a skunky smell. This intensifies the overall odor of cat urine over time. Hormonal Influence: Unneutered male cats produce urine with a stronger smell due to hormones used for marking territory. Unspayed females also have potent-smelling urine, especially when in heat.
- floren 1y ago
  Did you prompt an LLM for a list of reasons why cat waste smells bad? If so, why did you think it was a good idea to paste that here?
  - vee-kay 1y ago
    I just did a quick search for "why cat pee is so pungent", and pasted the info here, since it felt relevant to this discussion.
    - hilbert42 1y ago
      My grandmother didn't like the neighbors' male cats because they used to pee on her vegetable garden. Once peed upon the smell was so bad you'd chuck the vegetable out (no amount of washing would remove it).
      - cogman10 1y ago
        We never had that problem with our cats. They left the garden alone for the most part. The one thing I'll say about the stinky cat, it keeps rodents away better than anything else. The cats at my parents' house eventually died off and when that happened the mice started invading the house. Once they bought some more cats, the mouse problem went away again.
  - hilbert42 1y ago
    "Did you prompt an LLM for a list of reasons why cat waste smells bad?" Don't know about vee-kay but most of those facts I learned from my grandmother, it's pretty common knowledge. The remainder—mercaptans—I learned in o-chem. LLMs not necessary.
IAmBroom 1y ago
I raised my last dog on a raw meat, bones, and organs diet. His poops were much smaller, less smelly, and broke down much faster (compared to spells where I had him on regular dog food). In fact, I could tell what he'd eaten by smelling his poop, not that I did that intentionally... "Yep, that's chicken all right!" Ironically, it wasn't smellier when the food was "spoiled" (by my standards, "greatly improved with aging" was his take). My point is only: we've accidentally engineered their food for maximum disgustingness on egress.
- hilbert42 1y ago
  Right, but dogs are nevertheless somewhat discriminating. When a kid, I fed my dog on butcher's off-cuts which I'd get for free. Usually they'd be meaty and fresh enough for us humans to eat (but we never had need and ate better). Occasionally, the butcher gave me meat that whilst not 'off' was a little stale and had a trace of smell about it and my dogs noticed the fact. They'd eat it with reluctance and or only when very hungry. A quick and almost miraculous solution was to pour boiling water over the meat which would turn its outside grey or brownish (it being still raw in the middle). The dogs would then instantly eat it, in fact I had to be careful to let it cool down so they wouldn't scold themselves.