Cuddle your pet on New Year's Eve
| • | Getting your pet through the fireworks |
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Eric Ako's prescription for New Year's Eve is to turn the lights down low, turn up the stereo, find a comfortable spot and put your arms around your beloved ... pet.
City sales of New Year's Eve firecracker permits yesterday continued to lag behind last year's on O'ahu. As of 4:30 p.m., 1,453 permits had been sold at satellite city halls, compared to 3,327 permits by the same date last year. Permits cost $25 and allow purchase of 5,000 firecrackers until 9 p.m. New Year's Eve. Firecrackers may be ignited between 9 p.m. New Year's Eve and 1 a.m. New Year's Day.
Ako, a veterinarian at the Pet Doctor in Kahala, says pet owners owe it to their animals to stay with them when firecrackers and other fireworks fill Hawai'i neighborhoods with roaring sound, sudden bright lights and noxious fumes and smoke.
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Getting permits
And Ako believes that tender loving care is a lot safer than tranquilizers.
While New Year's Eve can be fun for celebrants, it can be hell for the pets who live in 54 percent of O'ahu homes, says Eve Holt, Hawaiian Humane Society community relations director.
Unattended dogs tormented by the noise often run away, Holt said.
Last January, 402 dogs were reported lost on O'ahu, compared to an average of 286 in the other 11 months of the year, Holt said. She says the reason for the spike is most likely New Year's Eve fireworks.
While many dogs are lost, a few are injured, mostly in traffic.
Statistics don't indicate an increase in road deaths, however. Honolulu's dead-animal pickup officers report that the recovery of about nine or 10 animals on a typical Jan. 2 isn't unusual.
But Pat Thomas of VCA Kane'ohe Animal Hospital still says so many animals are injured that "I hate to work on New Year's Eve or the Fourth of July."
"The dogs are so frightened they don't pay attention, they panic," she said.
Ako's cozy evening at home may be the best precaution.
"Our general recommendation is that one should do their best to stay home and darken the house, or at least a room, turn the stereo on, and be there and simply hold and love the pet."
Pet birds are very vulnerable to smoke from fireworks, he said.
Miners used to carry canaries into coal mines because the birds' delicate respiratory system would be affected first by any gases or fumes and serve as a warning to humans.
Ako says hundreds of birds found dead on Kailua Beach after New Year's Eve 2000 probably fell prey to clouds of smoke and may also have panicked because of the loud noise and lights of fireworks.
So he suggests birds be kept in a closed, climate-controlled room, or where fans direct air outdoors.
Ako says he shies away from tranquilizers for pets for the same reason others do for humans.
"Generally, the less drugs in the body, the better," the veterinarian said. Tranquilizers can be dangerous for animals that are very young, old or ill. Some, such as hunting hounds, may be allergic.
"Above all, don't give them whiskey. A lot of pet owners do."
For those who want to medicate their pet, Ako recommends trying natural substances first, such as
L-tryptophan, which can be obtained from a veterinarian who will prescribe the right amount.
As bad as fireworks are for pets, they aren't the worst threat to an animal's health during the holidays.
"The biggest thing is eating foods that aren't good for them," Ako said.
Same as their masters.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
