Cigarette Butts: Not Good for your Dog (or the Environment)

I don’t smoke. I used to, but not anymore.  I really don’t care if you smoke as long as it does not affect my world. It affects my world if you leave your cigarette’s butt on the ground. That affects my environment and my dogs.

According to Cigarettelitter.org, cigarette butts are not really biodegradable; the plastic filters can take many years to decompose. Oh and we have the junk in the filer where the toxic chemicals are. Cigarette filters were designed to trap those chemicals and when they are lying around on the ground or getting into our waterways, those chemicals can leak out into aquatic ecosystems. Cigarette butts may seem small, but with several trillion butts littered every year, the toxic chemicals add up!
Now to dogs and butts, not sniffing, but dogs that may eat a cigarette butt left on the ground and that can make them sick. 

The most common ways dogs are made sick are by eating a cigarette butt or nicotine patch. It will take less nicotine to poison your dog than it does to poison you. Symptoms include tremors, drooling and seizures. If your dog has eaten a nicotine product, got the vets right away.

As I was checking out the dangers of cigarette butts, I was reminded of the other dangers of cigarettes and our pets. Let’s start with the big ‘C’: cancer. Second hand smoke can give your pets cancer, just like us.  Smoking can also cause allergic reactions in pets. Also, pets in a smoker’s home will have that smoke residue on their fur. So when they clean themselves, they are constantly ingesting.

I know giving up the cigs can be hard, but it really does affect a lot of others around you. So next time you are getting ready to drop the cigarette butt on the ground. Please, don’t. It can hurt all of us.