When Veronica Yanez lights up a cigarette, her two cats, Lola and Riley, run away. Her 12-year-old Pomeranian dog, Sasha, isn’t far behind. When Veronica Yanez lights up a cigarette, her two cats, Lola and Riley, run away. Her 12-year-old Pomeranian dog, Sasha, isn’t far behind.

“I know it’s something I need to do,” said Yanez, 26. “It’s just an addiction that I have that I can’t get over. The last thing that I would want to do is hurt my animals in any way.”New research from the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit suggests that smokers are more likely to quit the habit for the sake of their pets’ health than for their own.

But many people in the Dallas area say quitting smoking is so difficult that worries over their pets’ health might not be enough of an incentive to make a permanent lifestyle change. “Unless [people] know for sure it’s messing their pet up, I don’t think they’ll [quit],” said Greg Barr, who cares for his 86-year-old mother’s Yorkie named Pepper. Both of them smoke around the dog.

The research, which was based on a Web survey, showed that few people know that second-hand smoking has been tied to cancers, respiratory problems, skin diseases and other health problems in cats and dogs.

Dickson Bain, a veterinarian at the Hillside Veterinary Clinic in Dallas, said he’s seen pet owners bring in dogs and cats that developed coughs and asthma because of their owners’ heavy smoking. He has advised some customers to quit smoking inside so their pets’ exposure to smoke is limited. In those cases, the animals’ health has improved, he said.

Still, Bain said he’s skeptical about whether a broader animal campaign would stop smokers from lighting up.“I think most people are so addicted, they can’t stop,” he said.In his office, technician Gabby Redmon, 24, bashfully admitted smoking around her two dogs and two cats. When Redmon lights up, her Rottweiler Layla gives her a look and walks out of the room. Redmon, who has asthma, said she would quit if something bad happened to her pets or if her own health worsened.

“I know better and that’s the sad part,” she said. Redmon said learning more about the effect of smoking on pets has prompted her to take her cigarette outside.Sharon Milberger, who conducted the research, said a nationwide education campaign could encourage more people to make those kinds of changes for their own interests and that of their pets.

Her research has been published by the international medical journal Tobacco Control .I think they just forget that the pets breathe in the smoke just the way humans do,” Milberger said. “[Pets] can’t articulate that, so [owners] don’t think about it.”