To think this is disgusting?

[CactusFred]

Last night I went to my friend's for dinner. I go every few weeks and we cook 'healthy' together rather than waste money on takeaway etc.

She's single with no kids and I'm married with one DC so I always go to hers for ease.

Anyway. She gets the stuff out of the fridge and puts it in the counter and says you chop and I'll start this.

There's a dog bowl on the chopping board. It has the remnants of dogs' meal in it. So I say I'll just wash the chopping board first.

She looks at me all confused and asks why. There's a dog bowl on it I say. She says it's clean. I say it's used! She then starts in about how her floor is spotless and 'not being funny' but her house is cleaner than mine, I have two cats and they probably go on counter etc.

They don't go on counter but I always use a clean chopping board anyway.

She throws the chopping board in the sink and washes it in a huff and it's really tense all evening. I tried to pretend it didn't happen but was gagging at food as if she preps food by dog bowl and thinks that's fine what else does she do?!

I'm also fuming about her saying her house is cleaner! I mean it is - on the surface at least - as her house is like show home but mine as hardly a pit!

AIBU to think prepping food next to dog bowl is disgusting?

[Looneytune253]

A lot of people are concentrating on the dog food. Dog food wouldn't bother me but the fact it had been ON THE FLOOR defo would. Yuck!! Kitchen floors especially can be a bit grim. I'm not a germophobe either but even I know that that's rank!!!

[HeWoreAGirlsCardigan]

I'm agog at so many saying it's OK to have a dog food bowl that has the remnants of dog food in it lifted off the floor where the dog and everyone walks and put on a flippin chopping board!!
When dogs piss in the street and people spit and you (or the dog) walks there in dried on piss/spit/shit and fuck knows what else that is potentially transmitted to the bottom of the bowl via the floor and to the chopping board where food that may be chopped but not subsequently cooked is prepared before eating and so many of you are OK with at. Putting the dog bowl on the work surface at all is minging but on the chopping board? Christ on a bike!

[Albadross]

Do people not know what goes into dog food? It's not held to the same standards - it's animal grade food.

But I'd be more concerned that dog's don't eat with a knife and fork - there'd be saliva and hairs on a dog bowl that a dog had eaten out of, and I personally wouldn't like to be prepping my food on a surface that could have this transferred on to it. Dog's clean their genitals with their tongues and eat poo from other animals, which is fine for them, but not safe for humans.

I have a cat who does jump on the counter but we always clean it thoroughly before starting to prep food.

[BravoPanda]

It's a dog bowl off a clean floor. Get a grip. The dog didn't wipe it's bum on the board. Also as a side note all dog and cat food has to be fit for human consumption incase of some sort of impending doomsday.

[ARumWithAView]

I would've washed the board, too, and I'm not particularly fussy. The area around our cats' bowls is always grim after they've eaten: bits of mystery-meat, splatters of that gloopy jelly, a weird amount of cat hair. I wouldn't eat a biscuit dropped there, which means it's one step up from a fatal biohazard.

It seems like when someone questions your hygiene standards, there's only three ways to go: mortified, raging, or blase. I love the post about a friend saying "is that all? I've probably eaten a million of my dog's hairs. He is a clean dog, you know". I will try that next time a visitor finds a hairball in their soup. You calling my cat filthy? How very dare you! We eat hairballs all the time!

[DelphiniumBlue]

Off topic slightly, but how is it easier for you to go to hers when you're the one with DC? I would have thought precisely the opposite!

[PerspicaciaTick]

The fact that you watched her wash the board and yet you still gagged throughout the meal (which is pretty unforgiveable IMO) suggests that you are more squeamish than most people.

[SeaCabbage]

What I would like to know OP is, why was the dog bowl on the chopping board in the first place? Was it on the counter? Why would she put it there?

Also, YANBU

[dottydee3]

We have dogs and cats and the floors are cleaned daily, I'm not an obsessive type but that is just gross. Does she get vomiting bugs frequently??

[876TaylorMade]

YANBU!!!!

[ThePinkOcelot]

I think you could have just washed the board and if she'd said anything you could have just said, ahh sorry just habit. No argument, no strange feelings etc.

[haveacupoftea]

You are both being a bit precious. Grow up!

[stoopido]

I think it is disgusting. I just wouldn't put a dog bowl on my chopping board.

[ReasonsToBeModeratelyHappy]

I've noticed people may sometimes have a very neat house, but they may not clean it in a hygienic way. I once watched a woman wipe round all her surfaces, repeatedly, and include some place mats with visible splodges of sauce and crumbs. She did it for over 10 mins while chatting, and at no point did she wash the cloth, or apply any cleaning product. So what she actually did was smear a thin film of food remains over all the surfaces :-/.
I do a lot less wiping, and a quick look would suggest her kitchen was cleaner, but I prefer my couple of crumbs here and there to the food smear any day!

[NicknameUsed]

I'm surprised at the number of people who think that putting a used dog bowl with the remains of the dog's meal in in it onto a chopping board is OK.

It isn't, not at all. I would have just picked up the chopping board and washed it without saying anything. I have had dogs and cats and am perfectly familiar with their eating habits. They flick food out and saliva and bits of hair get stuck to the sides.

BTW we "trained" our cats not to jump on work surfaces, but I know perfectly well they did when we were out of the house. It's what cats do. They knew not to do it in front of us though.

[Albadross]

I would argue that pet food doesn't have to be fit for human consumption in case of apocalpse

Here's what's allowed in pet food in the UK - note that you CAN use imported pet food, and in the US the rules are different and pet food may include by-products, chemicals, fillers and parts from '4D' meats (animals which are dying, diseased, disabled or deceased) that are unsafe for humans.

• Category 3 ABPs from carcasses passed fit for human consumption
  

slaughterhouse by-products, like hides, skins, horns, feet, pig bristle, feather or blood

• heads of poultry
  
• milk production by-products
  
• materials from on-farm slaughter of rabbits or poultry
  
• hatchery waste, eggs, egg by-products and day-old chicks
  
• fish and by-products from fish processing factories
  
• food production by-products including degreased bones
  
• products of animal origin (POA) or processed animal protein (PAP) no longer intended for human consumption
  
• imported pet food
  
• ABPs from aquatic animals from factories that make food for humans
  
• factory-rejected pet foods of animal origin, containing ABPs or derived products
  
• shells from shellfish with soft tissue or flesh
  
• sea or land invertebrates (spineless animals, eg insects) once they don’t carry diseases that can be passed on to humans or animals
  
• rodents and lagomorphs (rabbits) unless they are from zoos, experimental animals, or diseased wild animals
  
• blood, placenta, wool, feathers, hair, horns, hoof cuts and raw milk from live animals
  
• aquatic animals, and parts of such animals, except sea mammals

[ReasonsToBeModeratelyHappy]

I think the other thing is that, while the chopping board got cleaned, the friends initial insistence that the bowl was clean when it obviously wasn't, then her seeing no problem, makes it very likely she does other things in the kitchen that many would find unpleasant.
If she'd said 'oh my god, how did that get on there? Thanks - let's wash that board!', you'd have some reason to believe she doesn't do this stuff all the time. As it is, her standards for food hygiene seem to be very low.

[LolaTheDarkdestroyer]

Sorry but 😀 at cat cams. Cats go on the counter fact. As for the dog bowl you are right it has been on the floor o wouldn't want it near my food.

[Soubriquet]

I think yabu

It's dog food not toxic waste

She was probably offended you called her disgusting

I wouldn't blink twice over it

[Darlink]

Some not all dog owners have no concept of how mingin their house is.
Every single house with dogs smells of dogs .
The people who live there are accustomed so can't smell it.

[WallToWallDrugs]

YANBU, it's utterly rank.

[usernamealreadytaken]

BravoPanda you're probably right, the dog didn't wipe its bum on the dish. But it may we'll have licked its bum and then the bowl and then around the bowl which had been sat on a visually clean floor that had been walked on by doggy feet and whatever else, before said bowl was put up on the chopping board to prep vegan food, which might or might not have been cooked after.

Eating food from this chopping board is only two steps from the dog licking its bum then licking your mouth. If it had been a nappy in a sealed nappy bag, would it have been viewed differently?

[MontePulciana]

There was definitely no harm in washing it. I have to have everything clean before I start cooking. Weird how it was there in first place though. She's right about the cats though ours is always mooching around on the kitchen counters at every chance it gets.

[GahBuggerit]

i dont give a shiney turd if people think my house is 'minging' because i have a dog, they are welcome to pre-emptively fuck off out of my house by not coming round in the first place

[Chamonix1]

I'm a dog person and I would have washed that. In fact I don't own a dog and I still wipe my chopping boards before I use them. Standard procedure in our house. YANBU