New Yorkers 'buying up canaries to warn of gas attacks'
New Yorkers are buying canaries as an early warning system for terrorist gas attacks.
City pet shops have reported a surge in canary sales since September 11.
One store owner is worried people are treating the birds as trophies and won't take care of them.
Pierre Brooks, who owns 33rd & Bird,said: "People are coming in asking, 'Give me a canary, I don't care if it's male or female. But I want one'.
"The female doesn't sing. So that's an indication to us that they're buying them for you-know-what. I tell them, without being a biologist, that I don't think a canary is the answer."
Animal medical centre director, Dr Michael Garvey, says a canary is more sensitive to gases than humans but it would be "very silly" to buy them for such a reason.
He says: "Technically, they would succumb first. That's not the point. The real question is what would you do after the bird died? Where could you go?"
One resident, Jen Lee, said she bought a canary after learning at school that coal miners used them as an early warning system.
She says: "Okay, so I'm in the apartment, and suddenly the canary stops singing. It's dead. Then I either go outside right away, or if that doesn't look safe, then stay inside."
