One of my customers picked up a box of cute fluffy chicks, took them home and set them up in the brooder next to her kitchen. She then started dinner, cooking in a non-stick pan over gas.

The chicks started to have breathing troubles and look sleepy and then one-by-one, they died. She and her daughters were horrified and sad, and the chicks, well, they didn’t get to have their lives.

So this is your reminder that fumes from non-stick pans kill birds and that gas ranges — if not perfectly vented — can also give off noxious fumes. Best practice is to keep your babies away from the kitchen.

I feel so sad for the babies, and for the customer. She didn’t know. But know you do.