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Holiday Pet Tips

Halloween Pet Tips

Petfinder 2009 Howl-O-Ween Pet Photo Contest Entry. Courtesy of Danielle, New Orleans, LA.

ASPCA

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.

Courtesy of
ASPCA
424 East 92nd St.
New York, NY 10128-6804
(212) 876-7700
www.aspca.org