Enjoying bonfire night, yet remember to safeguard your pets and backyard wildlife
As Bonfire Night approaches, many households across the UK prepare to celebrate with bonfires, fire pits, and fireworks. However, it's essential to remember that these celebrations can be stressful and potentially harmful for animals if not enjoyed responsibly.
To ensure animal safety, several key measures should be taken. First and foremost, keep all pets indoors during and around fireworks events to prevent escape and injury. Frightened animals may try to flee, often causing harm to themselves.
Creating a calm environment is also crucial. Close curtains or blinds to block flashes and play calming background music or television to mask fireworks sounds. Providing safe spaces where animals can hide comfortably is another important aspect. For cats, this might be under furniture or near their guardian, while for birds, familiar music and possibly covering cages can help.
Ensuring pets have current identification, such as collars with tags and microchips, is essential because frightened animals commonly run away during fireworks. Staying close to pets during fireworks provides reassurance, as their presence is comforting to frightened animals.
These practices apply not only to dogs and cats but also to other pets such as birds and livestock, which can also become highly stressed by fireworks noises.
In the garden, building the bonfire on the day of lighting it helps ensure there are no hibernating animals in it. Creating the bonfire in a cleared area is recommended to minimize the risk of harm to animals. Building hedgehog houses and insect hotels in the garden can keep animals out of the bonfire. Pin up Catherine wheels on specially placed posts rather than nailing them to trees to protect trees and hedgerows, which are important habitats for birds.
Our gardens can become safe havens for wildlife in the autumn. Autumn brings changes in the habits of garden visitors, such as birds searching for food and hedgehogs hibernating. Offering animals safe hiding places and staying close to them helps reduce stress.
If setting off fireworks at home, inform neighbours about timings to avoid unpredictability causing stress for pets and their owners. Try to set fireworks off away from trees and hedgerows for the benefit of birds. After the festivities, pick up all sparklers and decorative debris from the garden as soon as possible.
It's important to remember that fireworks can cause severe distress to wildlife and pets. In 2021, the RSPCA received 11,785 reports of animals in distress between October and January. By combining these strategies, guardians can significantly reduce the risk and stress to animals during Bonfire Night celebrations.
Bonfire Night is an annual event in the UK, held on the 5th of November. By following these guidelines, we can ensure a safer and more enjoyable Bonfire Night for everyone, including our four-legged and feathered friends.
- Creating a calm environment for pets, by closing curtains, playing calming music, and providing safe hiding spaces, is crucial during fireworks events.
- In gardens, build bonfires on the day of lighting and in cleared areas to minimize risk to animals, and consider creating hedgehog houses and insect hotels.
- Not only dogs and cats, but also birds and livestock can be stressed by fireworks, so ensuring they have current identification and staying close to them during fireworks can help reduce stress.
- When setting off fireworks at home, inform neighbors about timings to avoid causing stress for pets and their owners, and try to set fireworks off away from trees and hedgerows for the benefit of birds.
- By following these guidelines, Bonfire Night can be enjoyable for everyone, including our pets, and can help reduce the risk and stress to wildlife during this annual event in the UK.
