Hunting Handbook

How can animals who hunt other animals not become seriously ill like we do when eating raw meat?

I just never understood how we humans have to cook meat well enough to eat it safely, but lions who hunt dear and zebra don't have to cook out in the jungle. How are our hearts and arteries so different from theirs so that they're able to eat raw meat without dying?

Public Comments

1. They're animals; their adapted to it. And they do get sick from that a lot more often, you just can't tell.
2. They're systems are different than ours. We were made differently and aren't used to eating raw meat, etc.
3. Most meat that people eat is not fresh. It's not decayed, but it's still old enough to be dangerous to eat raw. Lions and other carnivores eat their meat as soon as the prey animal in question dies. Bacteria can't contaminate the meat, because it's eaten immediately. Scavengers have enhanced immune systems etc. to help them eat decayed meat.
4. Where do you get that we would die if we were to eat raw meat? Ever heard of sushi? If it is fresh, and unspoiled, then it should be perfectly safe. But most meat we buy at the store have had a few days in processing, where they could have been exposed to bacteria. If they were not continuously kept refrigerated, and/or properly cooked after to kill remaining bacteria, then you could get sick from it.
5. They have an immunity to raw meat... and like humans who live in different country's have omegas in their stomach to protect them... a person from north american goes to south america and eats vegetable's washed in water,they will get a very bad case of diarrhea.. someone other that I can explain this better,, but this is ruffly the way it is
6. Carnivorous animals' digestive and immune systems are adapted to eating raw flesh - that's the way they have evolved. The people who are saying they don't get ill because they eat the meat while it's fresh are mistaken - many animals will eat meat that's in an advanced state of decay, and suffer no ill effects. When animals such as lions or wolves kill a large prey animal, like a buffalo or a moose, they do not eat it all in one go. They eat some, and come back the next day, and the next, and the next, until they have finished. If they come upon an animal that has died and begun to decay, they don't hesitate to eat it. A species that could not tolerate the bacteria in raw or decaying meat would not last long in the wild. We humans have been cooking our meat for thousands of years, and have lost the ability to deal with the bacteria we might ingest if we did otherwise. In some cases, we can eat raw flesh - the raw fish on sushi, as someone already mentioned, and there are various steak dishes in which the meat is either barely cooked or not cooked at all.