WEBVTT - Are Dogs a Shark's Favorite Meal?

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know

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<v Speaker 1>from how Stuff Works dot Com? Brought to you by

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<v Speaker 1>consumer Guy at Automotive We make garbine easier. Hi, and

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<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, is staff writer

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<v Speaker 1>here at how Stuff Works dot Com. With me is

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<v Speaker 1>arguably at least my equal, if not better, fellow staff

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<v Speaker 1>writer Charles Bryant. How are you chucking? I'm good? You

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<v Speaker 1>got any dogs? I do? I have two very sweet

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<v Speaker 1>and bad dogs, Buckley. Yeah. I have three dogs, um, Abby,

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<v Speaker 1>Bow and Maybell, and they're all related in super cute.

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<v Speaker 1>And I love my dogs. Is I'm sure you love

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<v Speaker 1>your dogs sometimes? Well everyone, Every once in a while

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<v Speaker 1>I wake up from a deep sleep and I'm covered

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<v Speaker 1>in sweat and panicking just a little bit um at

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<v Speaker 1>the thought or dream of my dogs being eaten by sharks?

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<v Speaker 1>Has that ever happened to you? Know? That's really weird.

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<v Speaker 1>It is weird, but it's it's awful, a terrible way

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<v Speaker 1>to live. Well, you've told me there's a reason behind this. Yeah, actually, um,

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<v Speaker 1>And there was an article in two thousand five that

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<v Speaker 1>that came out in two thousand five in the British

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<v Speaker 1>tabloid The Sun. Um and uh. Basically it was a

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<v Speaker 1>photo of a dog with a huge fish hook through

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<v Speaker 1>its nose and apparently the dog had been used on

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<v Speaker 1>this small island in the Indian Ocean as shark bait.

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<v Speaker 1>So ever since I saw that, I'm thinking our dogs,

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<v Speaker 1>you know something that sharks like to eat? And true?

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<v Speaker 1>Is this? Is that? Like it bat boy or no?

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<v Speaker 1>It is true? I'm not sure if the photo is true.

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<v Speaker 1>Still a disturbing photo, but apparently it is true. Um

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<v Speaker 1>and frankly I went on Snops the double check and

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<v Speaker 1>stuff says it looks like it's true. That's horrific. But

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<v Speaker 1>ever since then I haven't been able to get that

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<v Speaker 1>image out of my head, or at least the image

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<v Speaker 1>of my dogs being eaten. Right, So, um, can you

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<v Speaker 1>help me put this to rest? Yeah, a little bit.

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<v Speaker 1>I think one of the reasons that you have this

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<v Speaker 1>fear is because is there's something called gaiya phobia, which

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<v Speaker 1>is irrational fear of being eaten by a shark yourself

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<v Speaker 1>and projecting or transferring onto my dogs. Probably so it

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<v Speaker 1>sounds like me, yeah, young might say that. But uh,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the reasons I think is because being attacked

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<v Speaker 1>by shark is probably one of the most terrifying things,

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<v Speaker 1>even though it doesn't happen often. You can't imagine, thanks

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<v Speaker 1>to Steven Spielberg, anything worse than being dragged under and

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<v Speaker 1>bitten by something, you know, three times you're side the

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<v Speaker 1>Jaws effect, the Jaws effect, which is very real. It

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<v Speaker 1>definitely is real. But like you said, I mean, there's

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<v Speaker 1>not a lot of shark attacks really. For as many

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<v Speaker 1>people are who are walking around, um, you know, very

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<v Speaker 1>concerned by being attacked by a shark, there's not that many.

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<v Speaker 1>There's like seventy one shark attacks across all species of

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<v Speaker 1>sharks in two thousand seven, and only one of those

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<v Speaker 1>related in in fatality. Right, right, And I've got a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of more stats for you, Josh, it might help

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<v Speaker 1>put this into perspective. Um, they're kind of silly, but

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<v Speaker 1>they're true. Between nine and two thousand and six, twelve

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<v Speaker 1>people in the United States were killed by sharks and

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen people guide from sand hole collapses. Wow, that's true. Boom, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and uh, in seven, there were thirteen injuries all across

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<v Speaker 1>the country from shark attacks, and there were more than

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen hundred injuries from humans biting other humans in New

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<v Speaker 1>York City alone. I know that was a terrible year

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<v Speaker 1>for human bites. It was a lot of people who

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<v Speaker 1>were bitten by someone else. Right, But you don't walk

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<v Speaker 1>around the streets of New York afraid that someone's gonna

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<v Speaker 1>bite you. Yet every time you're in the ocean, you're

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<v Speaker 1>probably afraid that the shark's gonna bite you. Definitely, sure, sure,

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<v Speaker 1>but but I mean, let's put this to rest, right,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm I'm not so much worried about myself. My concern

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<v Speaker 1>is really over my dogs. Even though you live nowhere

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<v Speaker 1>near an ocean precisely, we're pretty much landlocked here. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>But although you know, there are some sharks that can

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<v Speaker 1>swim upstream, right, yeah, bull sharks, And how far has

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<v Speaker 1>one ever made it? They they swimming and rivers to

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<v Speaker 1>get to other bodies of water, and they can survive

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<v Speaker 1>in fresh water. They've been spotted as far north as

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<v Speaker 1>Illinois of the Mississippi River, which is yeah, that's crazy,

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<v Speaker 1>that's really crazy. And actually the chatter who which is

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<v Speaker 1>pretty filthy, But I don't know, maybe a bull shark

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<v Speaker 1>would try it who knows. Maybe so uh, I actually

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<v Speaker 1>have to confess, I do know whether or not dogs

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<v Speaker 1>are a shark's favorite meal, and the answer is no,

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<v Speaker 1>although that's not to say that a shark won't eat

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<v Speaker 1>a dog if the you know, moment's right, the heat

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<v Speaker 1>of the moment, it's most likely, Yeah, who are you,

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<v Speaker 1>and I'm going to eat you to find out. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>there's a I think is it the bull shark of

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<v Speaker 1>the tiger shark that does the bump and bite. The

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<v Speaker 1>bullshark mainly does the bumping bite, which is just kind

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<v Speaker 1>of investigate and see what if something is edible or

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<v Speaker 1>you know, has enough blubber, which is they're really their

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<v Speaker 1>favorite thing to eat. But a bull shark too will

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<v Speaker 1>also eat like license plates and shoes, so will a

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<v Speaker 1>tiger shark. I think bull sharks have been known to

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<v Speaker 1>eat hippopotami under the right conditions, right, And tiger sharks

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<v Speaker 1>are the vacuum cleaners of the sea that call them

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<v Speaker 1>so that they'll lead anything. Now, a great a great

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<v Speaker 1>white actually tests out whether or not it's it's prey,

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<v Speaker 1>something is its prey by kind of biting down gently.

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<v Speaker 1>Because all sharks prefer blubber. Whales have been found that

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<v Speaker 1>we're relatively intact but advistrated but missing all their blubber.

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<v Speaker 1>And sharks love seals, And if you're attacked by a

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<v Speaker 1>great white and it's chomping down on you, it's um

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<v Speaker 1>basically just testing to see how much blubber you have.

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<v Speaker 1>Dogs don't have much blubber. But like you said, mistaken

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<v Speaker 1>identity can lead you a bad day for a dog,

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<v Speaker 1>and you can could happen. There's plenty more information where

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<v Speaker 1>this came from our dogs is shark's favorite meal, and

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<v Speaker 1>you can read it on how stuff works dot com

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<v Speaker 1>for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is

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