Oct 23, 2011

Don't let Diwali become the gloomiest time for our pets!


We all love Diwali. The lights. the colours. The sweets. The sounds. The sounds?  Not so much. Not our pets. Not any animals. If you are a pet owner or know anything about animals, you know it's the worst time for them.

For my dogs, year after year, these 5 days are nothing short of an ordeal. The same dogs who would never be seen anywhere further than 5 feet from a human contact or off their comfortable seats,  disappear into the cold dark confines of the house, usually the loo, desperately hoping to find a quite corner & comfort from the maddening sounds , going off all over around them and worst part is they have no clue what the hell is going on!

Ever stood on the 25th storey of a building & heard a thunderstorm go off? Now magnify that sound 10 times + add a complete cluelessness of what's happening. That's what the dogs & other animals go through hearing the firecrackers on Diwali.  Dogs have extra-sensitive hearing powers and what sounds just like a minor thud to you, might be enough to shake them out of their sanity. Many dogs have been known to run away from their homes trying to get away from all the noise and have been run over on the roads or worst have had crackers tied to their tails and burst off!

Probably you already know them all, but if you don't, here're some things, you could do to help make this Diwali less painful for those lovely, speechless animals around you, who 'd thank you for the remaining days of the year. 

1) If there's a room in the house where noise penetrates the least, put your pets there, with enough food & water and their favourite chew toys there....Better still, if you have a farmhouse or some friends' place in the outskirts of the city, drop off the dogs there , especially on the main day...

2) Do hug them when they're shaking and shivering . They take re-assurance when a member of the family is around them...

3) Whatever happens , do not leave them in the balcony or tied anywhere  in the house!
I've known a dog that strangled itself out of its inability to break away when it was almost having fits from hearing the impossible & constant sound of crackers, blaring out in the open space.

4) For heaven's sake, don't burst crackers around or ON the street dogs/cows or other animals...that's just plain stupid and insensitive.

5) Avoid noisy crackers, if you MUST burst any at all....The ones with the light effects and psychedellic patterns in the sky are so much prettier any day, and are animal-friendly. ( & let's not even get into noise pollution, exploitation of child labour, hazards of making fireworks etc !)

and lastly, since it's Diwali, the house will have a lot of sweets around and people tend to throw off bits & pieces to the dogs , trying to calm them. You'll be doing more harm than good by overloading the dogs on sweets, since sweets are harmful for the dogs & can have longtime repercussions on their health .

I love dogs and my dogs even more. And I'd do everything I can to make sure I don't celebrate this beautiful festival at the cost of some poor animal's life . Would you?


1 comment:

Ragster Go11 said...

Agreed on all counts but one. I've heard that hugging them does reassure them, but it also encourages the activities they're engaging in (viz. hiding and crawling in to dark corners - which might normally be off-limit areas for them).

The best alternative is to leave them in a room with low sound penetration - or CREATE one such room by stuffing windows and other gaps with newspapers.

One can calm dogs down by speaking reassuringly to them, but avoid positive reinforcement of the behavior. This is useful in the long run as it makes it much easier to control them and prevent them from hurting themselves in such situations.