Keep Your Pets Safe this Halloween

Halloween can be a traumatic and even dangerous time for your pets. It can pose unexpected dangers to pets – from chocolate candies which can be toxic to dogs, to pumpkins with lit candles that curious kittens might knock over. 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.

Courtesy of:  www.aspca.org