Halloween can be a traumatic & even dangerous time for your animal companion. Common sense tips to protect animals on Halloween:
Keep your pet away from the front door. Keeping your pet in a separate room during the trick-or-treating hours is best. At an open door, dogs in particular, may feel the need to "protect their home & humans" & may bite your bizarre-looking visitors. Your pet may also become frightened dart out through the open door.
Don't leave your pet out in the yard (front or back yard) on Halloween. There are plenty of stories of vicious pranksters who have teased, injured, stolen, even killed pets on this night.
Trick-or-treat candies are not for pets. Chocolate is poisonous to many animals, & tin foil & cellophane candy wrappers can be hazardous if swallowed.
Be careful of pets around candles and lit pumpkins. These may be easily knocked over & cause a fire. Curious kittens especially run the risk of getting badly burned.
Don't dress your pet in a costume, this may put added stress on the animal. If you do dress up your dog, make sure the costume isn't constricting, annoying or unsafe. Be careful not to obstruct his vision, even the gentlest dog can get snappy when he can't see what's going on around him.
Finally, some humane organizations fear that certain pets, primarily black cats, are at risk of becoming unwilling participants in the darker side of Halloween activities, & elect to halt adoptions of these animals until after the holiday. For safety reasons, owners of all pets, particularly black cats, should keep an especially close eye on their pets around Halloween.Your pets are depending on you to keep them safe from the more dangerous goblins & ghouls that this holiday brings out.
:. Halloween Dangers for chained dogs!
Thanks to Dogs Deserve Better!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2007 -- For dogs that are kept perpetually chained, a dark, autumn night is just another night to be cold, lonely and longing for affection. On Halloween, a chained dog may also have to fear for his life.
Halloween is a particularly dangerous time for dogs that are kept chained outside, warns Dogs Deserve Better, a non-profit dedicated to ending the suffering endured by dogs that are kept perpetually chained or caged. At Halloween, the group frequently seeks an up-tick in the number of dogs that are helpless victims of attack. Fireworks or rocks are sometimes thrown at them and more horrific crimes, such as dogs being set on fire, have occurred in recent years. In addition, chained dogs can easily become agitated by strangers in or near their yards. Dogs Deserve Better representatives have encountered incidents of dogs breaking free from their chains and attacking trick-or-treaters.
Dogs Deserve Better works on numerous fronts year round to change minds and laws, educating about the dangers posed by 24/7 chaining, both to dogs and to people, who can become the victims of chained dogs that grow angry, frustrated, or aggressive from their constant confinement and exposure to the elements.
"Chained dogs are always vulnerable to cruel or mischievous children or adults. However, on Halloween, when people are out at night and often looking for mischief, chained dogs are particularly vulnerable, says Tammy Grimes, founder and director of Dogs Deserve Better, a 501c(3) non-profit based in Tipton, Pennsylvania. "Around Halloween, our rescuers have encountered chained dogs that have been pelted with various objects, stabbed, even set on fire. The practice of 24/7 chaining is cruel at any time of year, and it is a practice that is starting to be addressed legislatively in states and cities nationwide. Accordingly, Halloween is an ideal time to remind people to think about the suffering endured by chained dogs and to take action -- by talking to people who keep chained dogs, alerting animal control, and otherwise helping to end the suffering."
In the past two years, California and Texas, as well as hundreds of cities nationwide, have passed laws that put reasonable limits on how long people can chain a dog to a stationary object. Other states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Carolina, are currently considering "anti-tethering" legislation.
Contact: Tammy S. Grimes, Founder, Dogs Deserve Better
Email: tddb@dogsdeservebetter.org Phone: 814.207.4586
P.O. Box 23, Tipton, PA >> www.dogsdeservebetter.org
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