Have you ever heard the old adage of “a canary in a coal mine” ? The mighty Canary has a perplexing history in the United States, both as pets and as safety aids. Canaries were often used in small cages to check the air quality of newly blasted coal mines before the workers could go in. They would leave the canary there for some time and if they pulled the cage back up and the bird was still alive, it was then deemed safe for workers to go in. Various types of gasses were present in the coal mines and as per most experiments, animals became the test subjects to check the safety of the environment. This practice dates back to the late 1800s in the United States and in the UK, and was still used up until just 40 years ago! I contemplate how people knew canaries were more sensitive to environmental gasses than other animals. They’ve been kept as pets in Europe since the early 1400s, so several centuries of husbandry must have taught us what they were capable of handling. Our pet birds have different respiratory systems than we do, having both lungs and air sacs. It takes two breaths to expel the air they breathe in, so seemingly the air stays in their respiratory system longer.
We know today that our pet birds shouldn’t be exposed to heavy chemical cleaners, heavily scented items, non-stick cookware, etc. But how do we know this? Because of the accidents of the past. I remember in the late 90s, early 2000s when customers would call every day saying their birds were dropping over dead with no understanding of what could’ve happened. This is when Teflon and non-stick pans became popular and we quickly learned that the chemical coatings that make these pans non-stick were deadly to our pet birds. Today we know to look for PTFE and PFOA free non-stick pans to use around our birds. I consider how many living things (pets, children, etc) that suffer and die before we know the safety of items we use or encounter every day. Perhaps knowing we shouldn’t use non-stick pans around our birds, should teach us that the things in our house that are considered “safe” might actually be doing more harm than not. It amazes me to think how much birds have taught us and perhaps we should be looking to them (and nature in general) more often for answers. When we look to people to be thankful for all the scientific advances made in our lifetime, the mighty canary should be right in line!
-Bernie
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