Secondhand Smoke Can Kill Your Animal Companions

This filthy concoction, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contains more than 4,000 chemicals—including more than 50 that are likely or known to cause cancer.

Do you need a reason to quit smoking? Or are you trying to find that one compelling argument that will break your friend or relative’s habit? Look no further than the animals we share our homes with: Studies have proved that secondhand smoke significantly increases the chances that our animal companions will get cancer, among other nasty diseases and conditions.

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe and the smoke exhaled by a smoker. Secondhand smoke is widely known to cause cancer as well as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in humans. Veterinarians have long suspected that secondhand smoke increases the risk of respiratory problems and cancer in companion animals. Some recent studies have shed light on this sobering link.

So toss the tobacco in the garbage and stop wheezing when you stoop to scoop the litter box and take the dogs for a walk. You’ll all enjoy more days together!

When Grooming Turns Deadly

A Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine study found that cats living in a home with a smoker are more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma, an oral cancer, than cats who are not exposed to secondhand smoke.

Why mouth cancer? Cats in smoking households lick up the thousands of chemicals that settle on their fur when they live with smokers. Daily grooming over a long period of time exposes a cat’s sensitive mouth skin to these cancer-causing chemicals, known as carcinogens.

The risk for cancer skyrocketed when a cat lived with more than one smoker or had been exposed to secondhand smoke for more than five years.

The same study also found that cats who live with a smoker are more than twice as likely to develop feline lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph nodes. Smokers inadvertently deposit thousands of smoke particles on their cats’ fur, which the cats inhale when they groom themselves. These concentrated particles enter cats’ nasal passages and bloodstream, causing cancer in the sinuses and throughout the body, including the chest and the intestines.

Cats who breathe in secondhand smoke can also develop respiratory problems, lung inflammation, and asthma.

Pipes: One Thing Fido Shouldn’t Sniff

Dogs who inhale secondhand smoke are three times more likely to develop nasal cancer than dogs living in smoke-free homes.

A University of Massachusetts study found that dogs who live with a smoker have a 60 percent chance of developing lung cancer.

This correlation was especially strong among long-nosed dog breeds such as collies, according to a Colorado State University study. Dogs like Lassie typically inhale chemical-laced fumes through their noses, so it only follows that dogs with long nasal passages consisting of greater surface areas and more cells stand an increased chance of developing cancer there.

This study also found that short- to medium-nosed dogs living with smokers risk developing lung cancer—their shorter nasal passages are thought to filter relatively few carcinogens out of the toxic air that they inhale before it deposits carcinogens in their lungs.

Dogs can also experience allergic reactions to secondhand smoke—including scratching, biting, and chewing their skin. Fido may not have fleas or be allergic to food—he may be in misery because of those cigarettes!

Speaking of cigarettes, the deadly dangers don’t end with the smoke that they produce. A cigarette butt, if eaten by a puppy, can quickly cause death.

Birds: Born to Fly Free, Stuck in a Cage Inhaling Secondhand Smoke

Do you know a bird who has been cooped up in a house that smells more like a bar than a home? You can bet that the animal is suffering eye problems in addition to respiratory distress, like coughing and wheezing.

Birds lucky enough to be removed from their cages but who end up sitting on a smoker’s nicotine-coated hand can suffer from dermatitis and end up pulling out their own feathers.

What You Can Do

If you smoke, please consider the effects that your habit has on the smallest of your loved ones. If you’re not ready to quit, head outdoors with the tobacco or limit the indoor areas where you do smoke so that your animal companions are less affected.

Ask smoking friends and relatives to smoke outdoors, or designate a separate smoking area of the house that is off-limits to animals.

Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and raise awareness of this issue. Read PETA’s letter-writing suggestions.

You can improve the lives of dogs and cats who are suffering from cruelty and neglect.