Environmental Toxic Exposures Using Companion Animals as an Indicator of Human Toxicity: A Case Report and Discussion.

Background: Hundreds of years ago, humans realized that animals could be used as surrogate indicators of toxic environmental exposures, as a tool to measure risk to human health. The classic example is coal miners bringing canaries into coal mines. The respiratory rate and metabolism of the animal resulted in toxic signs of injurious gases in the environment before humans were injured.