We Americans are doing so much cocaine that it’s starting to show up inside our pets, specifically cats and dogs. This is according to new research from animal health experts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Pet Poison Helpline/SafetyCall International LLC from Bloomington, Minnesota.
And it’s not just cocaine. The researchers are finding that our beloved dogs and cats are eating our stashes of methamphetamine as well.
The research, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed data from calls to pet poison control centers made between 2019 and 2023. As you might remember, this stretch of time included a rather lengthy period where everyone was stuck at home trying not to catch a virus that could kill them. A lot of people who had no idea how to handle the stress of that situation turned to meth and coke.
In homes where drugs are used, pets are regularly exposed to the secondhand effects, usually in the form of smoke. But in the case of cocaine and methamphetamine, pets who don’t know any better will swallow your little powdery bag without a second thought.
Between 2019 and 2023, cocaine exposure rose by 52 percent in cats and 39 percent in dogs. Thankfully, methamphetamine-related ingestion cases remained steady, though it would probably be better if they were falling.
The researchers couldn’t determine how, exactly, the pets are accessing the drugs, even after analyzing data from 433 dogs and 63 cats. That said, we can take some good educated guesses based on all of our experience with dogs and cats.
The phrase “curiosity killed the cat” doesn’t just apply to felines. Anyone with a security camera in their home knows their dog is up to no good from the second they leave the house.
If you leave your cocaine and meth just lying around, your pets might eat it. So don’t be an asshole. Don’t pass your addiction on to your pets. Keep your drug problem away from innocent lives that don’t need to be ruined too.
The post We Need to Try a Little Harder to Keep Our Pets Away From Our Cocaine appeared first on VICE.
