Man's Frustration Over Zookeeper Girlfriend's Smell Sparks Debate

A man has shared how he regrets telling his girlfriend not to worry about her hygiene in a viral post on Reddit.

On Monday, the 25-year-old who uses the Reddit handle u/hiti72 shared how he had made a mistake when he told his 22-year-old zookeeper girlfriend not to worry about washing after work.

In the U.S., approximately 64 percent of zookeepers are female. These trained professionals are responsible for caring for animals who are bred and kept in captivity—monitoring their behavior, and ensuring they are fed and kept in a clean and safe environment.

But it can be a messy job, often involving handling animals and cleaning up dirty or soiled habitats.

In the post that has over 11,000 upvotes, the man explained how the situation had begun around a month earlier: "I met her for dinner one night at a semi-fancy restaurant around 6 pm. She arrived a little bit late, and was really apologetic saying 'Oh gosh sorry, I probably smell so funky right now, I tried my best to wash and scrub but I know it wasn't enough.'"

"She was pretty stinky," said the poster: "She works as an animal caretaker at the zoo and had to stay late that night, so I understood."

Describing the smell as "something between old fish and a ferret cage," the man admitted he was bothered by the scent but saw no reason it should ruin the dinner and so tried to reassure her, telling his girlfriend: "I mean I guess there's a slight smell, but it just shows you worked hard...I've never been one of those weak-stomached guys who's going to complain about that, I really don't mind, honest, I'm used to animal smells anyway."

But to the man's surprise, his girlfriend's eyes lit up and she said: "Wow, really, you're serious? That's so reassuring to hear."

"[She started] opening up about how hard it was to make sure she always smelled good," explained the Redditor: "That she'd often have to scrub for half an hour after work to even be somewhat presentable, and sometimes even that wasn't enough."

Shocked by how difficult it was for his girlfriend, he asked how other keepers deal with it: "She said most were single or dated within the profession and it was rare to find someone like me who genuinely didn't mind! So I reassured her that yeah, she doesn't need to be overly concerned about that with me. I could tell it meant a lot to her. But I think this turned out to be a big mistake..."

A study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences investigated the dealbreakers that turn people off a potential partner. With factors on the list including "bad flirting" and rudeness, among the top three factors was bad hygiene—particularly noting rotten teeth or bad breath.

After telling his girlfriend not to worry though, the Redditor explained that he regretted it.

"Over the past month, we've seen each other more often, and she's usually smelled okay, but there have been 4 or 5 occasions where she's smelled horrible. 10-20x worse than that night in the restaurant," he wrote: "I have to breathe lightly to even try to stomach it, and it really kills my mood and leaves my house reeking."

Exasperated by the situation, the poster wrote: "Now I either have to really let her down or resign myself to living in olfactory hell."

The story led to various responses from other Reddit users who left more than 1,000 replies.

One commenter joked: "You need to find just the right strain of covid to wreck your nose but not you," while another quipped: "Idk man, seems to me that she's a keeper."

Another Redditor shared that they were a zookeeper themselves and wrote: "I think this will be something you want to think about when it comes to the long-term future of your relationship. I never had any success dating outside the profession, and this was one reason why. Right now, she can pick and choose when to see you and center it around when she smells ok. When you're living together though? There are going to be days when she stinks like hell. Probably much worse than anything you've experienced so far."

"You could just tell her when it's really bad," suggested another response: "The thing about being an adult is that you are allowed to change your mind whenever you want."

"You could go full passive-aggressive and get a job at a slaughterhouse," said another Redditor.

Newsweek has reached out to u/hiti72 for comment. We were unable to verify the details of this case.