Halloween can be a traumatic and even dangerous time for your pets. The ASPCA would like to offer some common-sense tips to help you protect them:
- Don't leave your pets out in the 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 a lot of animals, and tin foil and cellophane candy wrappers can be hazardous if swallowed.
- Be careful of pets around a lit pumpkin: pets may knock it over and cause a fire. Curious kittens especially run the risk of getting burned.
- Don't dress the dog in costume unless you know he loves it. Otherwise, it puts a lot of 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 or her vision; even the sweetest dogs can get snappy when they can't see what's going on around them.
- All but the most social dogs should be kept in a separate room during trick-or-treat visiting hours; too many strangers in strange garb can be scary for a dog.
- Be careful your cat or dog doesn't dart out through an open door.
While this can be a fun time for people and pets alike, remember that your pets are depending on you to keep them safe from the more dangerous goblins and ghouls that this holiday brings.
