With the fireworks season approaching it can be a stressful time for cats, dogs and their owners. Christmas and New Year´s Eve is coming. Do you think for your dog it means the same as for you?
There is plenty to like about Christmas. The beautiful twinkling lights, the sweets, new clothes and for some, the fireworks and firecrackers. With the city lit up beautifully and the sound of crackers filling the air, this season might be one of the most enjoyable time for us, but definitely not for our furry friends. Well, for them it is veritably the worst time of the year! It’s also not a very enjoyable time for those of us who have pets, especially dogs, at home. The sound of bursting crackers cause them more trauma than we can probably understand. In fact, they cause more trouble to our fury friends than you imagine.
Sensory overload aside, Christmas and New Year season also sees multiple cases of stray cats and dogs and even birds getting involved and injured and in accidents. Firecrackers can cause stress, terror and even death in both domestic and wild animals.
Have you ever seen the behavior and body language of animals during Christmas season? If you have seen it, you won’t even think about Firecrackers.
Let me tell you, as we all are aware about the fact that cats and dogs have highly sensitive hearing abilities. Dogs hear sounds that the human ear cannot. The incredibly loud and unexpected noises are both painful to animal’s much more sensitive hearing and extremely frightening since these are noises that are unpredictable, unexpected and come from all directions.
Permanent deafness, blindness, loss of appetite and panic attacks that could leading to heart failure and death are just some of the effects that bursting crackers can have on animals, (Apart from the more common shivering and howling). It is basically like a terrorist attack for frightened, and traumatized animals. It wouldn’t be a gross eye-rolling exaggeration to say this. With no context or comprehension for the sudden madness, the thunderous sound of non-stop crackers and smoke is a calamity for them. The ones on the street obviously have it worse they often run helter-skelter in panic and meet with accidents. Even the ones indoors are terrified. There are several cases of pet dogs, for example, running away from their homes out of panic, and never being able to find the way back to their families. Some dogs develop a permanent sound phobia or excessive fear of loud noises if they are exposed to fireworks. This condition leads dogs to irrationally hide from people, urinate, defecate, drool, pant and develop separation anxiety.
For the rest of their lives, a dog could be petrified of harmless sounds like the opening of a door or the sound of the doorbell – basically making daily survival a traumatic exercise.
Veterinary Hospitals, receive multiple calls from people about anxious and inconsolable pets as well as injured animals.
Ask any veterinarian, and they will tell you that the cases of animal injuries shoot up every year during the Christmas season. Not to mention the cries for help on Facebook and WhatsApp with pictures of injured dogs and cats..Think about how you feel when you are startled by a loud, unexpected noise. Your heart might begin racing, your adrenaline gets flowing, might even let out a little scream.
Well, your dog might feel just like that when spooked by one loud, unexpected firework explosion after another.
Because of this, sound of continuous loud bursts are literally nerve wracking to them. They may be used to the drums and sirens on the streets. But the sound of fireworks and firecrackers can be stressful and traumatic so they may refuse to come out of their hiding and even refuse to eat and drink during this season.
This Christmas, I request you guys to be a little more compassionate towards these creatures. Show some empathy towards them. For humanity’s sake, don’t light firecrackers. They not only kill the environment, but torture animals to the point where they end up suffering from anxiety and stress. Do whatever you can to lessen the impact of these noisemakers including not having them in or around your property.