As you know, or you should know, birds have one of the most sensitive and efficient respiratory systems in the animal kingdom. In days of old, miners took canaries into mines with them for this very reason.  For a wonderful explanation of how and why watch the video below!

Yes, in this day and age, with all of the science out there and with this thing called the internet, people still smoke around their animals.  It baffles me.  I’m confused why you would trap your animal in your house, while you puff away on your Marlboro red and think that’s ok.  Firstly animals have different respiratory systems than humans, clearly.  But why would you take an animal with the most sensitive respiratory system in the animal world and smoke around it? I understand smoking is an addiction, and I smoked a pack a day for many years.  I also, never smoked in my house.  Hey I’ll be honest, I still enjoy the occasional cigarette when I have a cocktail, I find it’s refreshing. But, my birds aren’t around and it’s always outdoors.  A few years back we helped a friend of ours who smoked in her condo for two years and asked us to prep it for selling.  During this process, we washed walls and windows, which were saturated with nicotine.  It was so bad in some areas it looked like tea running down white walls and glass.  I could only imagine what was on the furniture or on the dishes in the cabinets.  

For those of you who “vape” in your house, I have news for you.  You may be taking out some of the chemicals from cigarettes and your e-cig may have those fancy flavors, but you are still expelling nicotine and other hazardous chemicals.  Nicotine that is going to get on your furniture, clothes, walls and be more importantly inhaled by your birds and other pets.  

So, what have we learned?  Get off your butt to have a but.  Go outside and smoke whatever you are going to smoke.  Don’t be selfish and jeopardize the health and well-being of your animals. It’s pretty simple and it’s just common sense.