Yes they are. A couple decades ago there was a scandal about “mad cow disease” because of British beef fed with meat-and-bone-meal (MBM) that was not heated sufficiently to destroy any prion that might have been in there. So the unwittingly carnivorous cows got prions, and were then slaughtered for their prion-infested meat that got sold to people.
I have a question about that last rule. Sarnothi are *not* human. They are predators. Have they adapted to cooked food? Are they vulnerable to prions? It’s valid as it sets up a fundamental difference in biology…
Everything is vulnerable to prions, or other food-borne diseases. Animals in nature get sick all the time, we just don’t consider it a very big deal when they do, whereas we do consider it a big deal when people get sick.
That said, I somehow doubt they’re in the habit of cooking their food underwater.
In before Selkie runs up on a deer or moose and ends up unaliving it without a license.
If she kills a moose with her bare hands, she deserves the meat.
Don’t keel moose and squirrel, dollink.
I love this one! It really gives a feel for how far they’ve come since the beginning of the comic.
I went down a rabbit hole for prions and they’re horrifying.
Yes they are. A couple decades ago there was a scandal about “mad cow disease” because of British beef fed with meat-and-bone-meal (MBM) that was not heated sufficiently to destroy any prion that might have been in there. So the unwittingly carnivorous cows got prions, and were then slaughtered for their prion-infested meat that got sold to people.
I have a question about that last rule. Sarnothi are *not* human. They are predators. Have they adapted to cooked food? Are they vulnerable to prions? It’s valid as it sets up a fundamental difference in biology…
yeah, i have the same question.
could just be “in case”?
Everything is vulnerable to prions, or other food-borne diseases. Animals in nature get sick all the time, we just don’t consider it a very big deal when they do, whereas we do consider it a big deal when people get sick.
That said, I somehow doubt they’re in the habit of cooking their food underwater.
they do cook their food underwater, check out the colony scene!
I would think they are, given their ‘traditional’ diet is not mammalian in general (unless they hunt whales and dolphins in the wide ocean)