Smoking, we all know it’s bad for our health and the environment yet as we can all see around us the smoking habit has not taken a decline. It doesn’t matter that smoking has been proven to be the major cause of lung cancer (primary carcinoma of the lung) and that at every corner you turn there’s a grisly health warning, it doesn’t matter how we have appealed to the sympathy of smoker by calling out the effects smoking have on our young ones (second hand smoke syndrome)…the addiction to cigarettes at this point in time seems simply too much of a force to be contended with.
So I’ll have to admit, there isn’t much we can do besides hope that present smokers will kick the habit and do our level best through education to avoid the new generation from picking up the habit. Indeed, much easier said that done, but if we’re going to stand a chance then I think we need to be through with our education on the effects of smoking.
It’s widely publicized- the effects cigarettes have on our health and its contribution to air pollution. But I realized yesterday, after watching Hangover 2, we’ve gravely overlooked another affected party – the animals. If you’ve watch the movie and laughed at the cigarette addicted monkey with some interesting smoking puffing skills then I think you wouldn’t if you realized life was imitating fiction and it is a serious urban problem.
You see not only are smokers being irresponsible when they smoke, they are also irresponsible when they put the cigarette out. Some just toss them to the side; starting fires and where they don’t burn something down to the ground, the cigarettes are innocently picked up by animals in their search for food. Some die swallowing the buds, others that survive actually get addicted.
It may seem funny and cute to see prints of animals smoking, after all they are just creative artworks…but it really does happen. You may not see a hamster smoking but you can find birds doing it. Secondhand smoke is already bad enough for the animals, first hand smoke is unthinkable. If you really love animals, especially the ones you have at home, do the right thing and give up smoking. The world thanks you for it.
