Dear Herd Hosts:

Can you give us humans any special pet safety advice for Halloween?

Signed, Spooky in Seattle

Dear Spooky,

Of course, we’d love to help your pets have a safe Howl-oween! Here are our top five safety tips:

1. No treats for Fido. Chocolate can be toxic to dogs and cats, and tin foil and cellophane candy wrappers can be hazardous if swallowed. Don’t give us candy, no matter how much we beg!

2. Take care with candles. If you add a candle to your carved Jack o’ lantern, make sure we can’t knock it over and get burned or cause a fire.

3. Dress without stress. If your pet likes to wear a costume (please don’t force us if we don’t!), make sure it’s safe. No small dangling pieces that we can chew or choke on. Make sure we can breathe, see and hear clearly, and that the costume doesn’t trip us or restrict our movement.

4. Get unplugged. Well, you can keep your lights and decorations plugged in, but make sure we can’t chew on the wires and chords.

5. Privacy please! Unless your pets are super social and friendly (like Hokie), put them in a separate room when trick-or-treaters come to call. All those strangers can be scary and stressful for us.

Happy Howl-oween!

Love, The Herd

P.S. Got other pet safety tips? Please post them here!

Hey Hokie

Can you remind bird owners that candles can be lethal to birds. The lead in the wicks along with any oils etc used to make them smell nice are extremely irritant to their lungs and air sacs.

Instead of real candles, you can use some of the very realistic battery operated one that even flicker!
Add to that the reduced fire risk and you have a recipe for a happy halloween for everything with feathers, fur or skin