Halloween can be loaded with stress and hazards for cats and dogs. Be sure to take some precautions to protect your companion animals.
First, keep your animals indoors. While there are many reasons for keeping your cats indoors, it's especially important at Halloween. With so many people out and about, some wearing strange and scary costumes and some with mischievous or downright malicious intentions, the safest place for your animals is inside your home. Although evidence of Halloween-related animal sacrifice and torture of black cats is anecdotal, many shelters prohibit adoptions of black cats in the days leading up to Halloween, as a precaution.
Also, the Pet Poison Helpline offers Halloween safety tips for pets, such as:
- Make sure your candy stash is inaccessible to your animals. Large amounts of candy can lead to pancreatitis, and ingestion of candy wrappers can lead to bowel obstructions. Also, chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is toxic to dogs.
- Putting costumes on your pets may obstruct their vision and/or movement, and never dye or color your pets' fur, even if the manufacturer claims the product is non-toxic.
- Keep burning candles out of the the reach of your animals. Better yet, use electric light sources.
For more Halloween safety tips, visit the Pet Poison Helpline site.
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