My friend Marion gave me a little news article about harnessing the power of the dog’s extraordinary nose. We are all familiar with dogs that can sniff out bombs, cocaine and other contraband, but now there is a dog that can smell colon cancer in a human stool – and according to this article, the dog outperforms the standard test of looking for blood in the stool.
This article, published in the aptly named journal “Gut,” describes a single black Lab who was originally a water rescue dog, but has been repurposed as a stool sniffer. The dog is rewarded with a tennis ball if he correctly smells the volatile chemicals produced by colon cancer.
This article was picked up by a lot of news services, but I don’t think its “newsworthiness” was related to a health care advance, but instead to the disturbing visual image. I picture Rex, a beleaguered dog who is forced to spend his days sniffing umpteen stool samples as they move by on a relentless conveyer belt. Behind him is a huge pile of tennis balls that he is allowed to play with for 10 minutes every 8 hours. Hovering nearby is Steffen, the owner who has spent years creating this super breed of dog. Rex is his stand out star. However his venture capital financing is based on his ability to breed dogs that can smell lung cancer from the more convenient breath sample. But the investors are worried. Last week Rex’s progeny Ace and Primo failed miserably and even worse Rex has lost interest in tennis balls. What’s worse is that PETA has targeted him, saying that forcing a dog to sniff poo all day is cruel. Steffan pointed out to PETA that they are unjustly ascribing human sensibilities to dog. While fecal odor induces a gag reflex in humans, anyone who visits a dog park know sthat dogs love smelling poo. PETA is unmoved.
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