Smokers rather quit for pet's health than own

February 11, 10:28 AMScience News ExaminerMeg Marquardt

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Anti-smoking campaigns may have found a new champion: pets.

According to a study conducted by Michigan researchers, "more than a quarter of all pet owners who smoke would try to quit if they knew smoking harmed their cat, bird or dog." [LiveScience]  This is a beautiful glimpse into the human psyche, that we may be more willing to do others good than ourselves, even if that other is an animal.

For the record, smoking is very dangerous for pets.  Prior to this study it had been shown that second-hand smoke can cause a litany of problems in pets including oral cancer in cats, nasal and lung cancers in dogs, and skin diseases in birds.

The study was done via an online survey in which over 3000 adults participated.  Pet owners were notified of the survey by flyers distributed by Pet Supplies Plus and the Michigan Humane Society, both of which helped fund the study.  Among those who participated, about 20% were smokers and more than 25% lived with at least one smoker. "The average number of cigarettes smoked was 13.5 a day, with around half of those smoked in the home.

Some 28 percent said that knowing that smoking was bad for their pets' health would spur them to give it up. And almost one in 10 (8.7 percent) said this would prompt them to ask their partners to quit, while around one in seven (14 percent) said they would tell their partner to smoke outdoors.

These figures were even higher among non-smokers, more than 16 percent of whom said they would ask their partner to quit, while 24 percent said they would tell their partner to smoke outdoors." [LiveScience]

Researchers hope that such information will help in the crusade against smoking.  The best way to help people stop smoking is to give them as many reasons as possible to quit. "We can't distill whether or not pet owners care more about their pets' health than their own," researcher Sharon Milberger of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Henry Ford Health System in Detroit told LiveScience. "We just know that they do care about their pets' health. We're trying to reach people in different ways since the health effects of smoking on humans is well known. What is less well known is the health effects on pets."  Hopefully anti-smoking campaigns will pick up on this strategy as well.

And as an amusing side note (and perhaps another glimpse into the human mind): "A survey carried out by the American Animal Hospital Association in 2008 showed that more than half of the respondents said that if they were stranded on a desert island, they would prefer the company of their pet to that of another person." [LiveScience]