Diwali

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Make it a Safe and Happy Diwali…for you and animals on your street

High-decibel noise during festivals like Diwali can be very traumatic for animals. Children think its fun to throw crackers at them and watch the poor animals suffer. Parents should prevent kids from doing this.

Here are 10 tips that pet owners, animal lovers and concerned citizens can practise, to lessen the trauma for pets and street animals. (Read points 1 to 3, if not all ten to help make a difference to the planet and street animals this Diwali). We don’t burn crackers and never will, to know why, please click and read here..

 

Diwali Poster

1. Pledge: An end to bursting firecrackers. What sounds loud to the human ear becomes four times louder to a dog and even more to a cat, so, you can imagine how loud the sound of a Diwali firecracker is to them. Even birds abandon their nests due to fear.

2. Tag: Pet owners and street dog carers should collar and tag the dogs with their names and contact details. If they get lost, it would be easier for the finder to trace their owner/caretaker.

3. Temporary refuge and tags for street dogs:

Street animals bear a huge brunt, as they are more susceptible to burn injuries due to the bombs and rockets. If it is difficult for street animal carers to give refuge to the street dogs that are petrified during Diwali, it would be good to have a temporary tag with your telephone number put on it. Street dogs cover long distances out of their territory and run helter-skelter or go into hiding. People, who notice a new dog in their area, can then call the street animal-carer because of the tag.

4. Don’t Walk: Pet owners who know that their pet is petrified of crackers should even go to the extent of not walking them outside the house during this period.

5. Give them company: Don’t leave them alone at home during Diwali. Having someone around, who they know, will lessen if not eliminate the
trauma.

6. Distract: Animal behaviourists advise that pet owners should distract their pets by playing with them. Loud music that is soothing might help drown out the firecracker noise.

7. Keep Away: Don’t take or allow your pets to wander near the site where firecrackers are being burst or even near used fireworks/remnants as they retain dangerous chemicals and may be poisonous if ingested by the pets.

8. Medicate: There are Homeopathic and Bach flower remedies available to reduce the trauma faced by animals during Diwali. You can ask your homeopath/veterinarian for details about the remedy/dosage. Don’t self-medicate.

9. Report: Any firecracker-inflicted cruelty to animals or any lost pets wearing tags to the SPCA/animal NGOs in your city.

10. Keep: Emergency telephone numbers of your veterinarian and animal welfare organisations handy.

(Thank you: This post is courtesy Mid Day and the images used have been shared by PAWS Thane.)

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Pet Care during Diwali

The content for this post was sent to us on an e-mailer and we deem it wise to share it with you all.

Dear Pet Lovers….Yes, your happy go lucky pet could be trembling shaking and barking more during the  Diwali celebrations at your home. All these and more are the signs that clearly communicate that your dog could well be scared during the fireworks. Signs of stress or fear may include shaking, trembling, barking, howling, excessive drooling or hiding when fireworks are being let off. Around Diwali, it is common for pets to get frightened from fireworks and noise.

The fear of loud noises in pets leads to behavioral problem such as destructive or escaping behavior. Even the pets that don’t have any traumatic experience with noise can develop such problem.

  • Put your pet in room with minimum number of windows, this will limit exposure to noise. The room should be safe from the pet’s perspective.
  • Hiding is a natural defense of dogs. Take note of the place where your pet prefers to go on being frightened. Allow easy access to that place.
  • Pets such as dogs and cats are known to try escaping through windows. So keep the windows close, especially if you don’t live on ground floor.
  • To keep the pets free from stimulation, keep curtains drawn.
  • Try to keep your pet engaged. You can play soothing music in the room to minimize noise effect. If you are having party in house then do call people that pet is familiar with.
  • Take medicines from veterinarian beforehand. If the anxiety levels of your pet are too high to manage, only then drugs are the best way to relieve dogs of their fears and anxiety.
  • You can take your dog for a walk in the morning, on Diwali or before people in your neighbourhood start bursting firecrackers. You should never let the dog free while the fireworks are being let off.
  • Help your pet dog to mask the exploding sounds of fireworks on the day of Diwali. Keep doors and windows shut and keep the curtains on, this will prevent lights and sounds while the fireworks are being exploded.
  • Also, keep crackers, lights and lamps away from your pet’s reach.

 

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This Diwali..think a little

I am writing this post to share with you a very personal story that always springs back to our (me and my brother Vivek’s, we both co-founded Jaagruti) memories every Diwali or rather in the days nearing it, as we start hearing the noise of bursting firecrackers around us, like in the time that I am penning this down.

The year was 1997, I was in Class 11, studying Sciences at D.A.V Public School, Pushpanjali Enclave, Delhi. I was 15 years old at that time, and every Diwali, my mother would pay an uncle of mine (who had his shop in Sadar Bazaar area of New Delhi) to get a box, or often boxes full of an assortment of firecrackers for us, which we enjoyed ourselves with.

But, that year, there was something unusual and uncharacteristic that our school did pre-Diwali, something I had not seen or learnt about in my 7 years of being in that school.

Our school participated in an ‘Anti-Fire Cracker’ campaign. At first I thought, that this campaign was the school’s way of teaching us not to burn fire crackers as burning them lets to our air being polluted and us contracting a host of respiratory diseases. But I was mistaken.

Under this campaign, we were distributed these little red stickers which had the following text written in Hindi.

“Pataakhe nahi jalaayenge, baal mazdoori hataayenge”

(which in English when translated would mean “We will not burn fire crackers and help get rid of child labour”).

Child Labour and Fire Crackers?? I was confused. What was this being talked about…I listened with intent and that was when I first understood that children as old or many years younger to me are employed by Fire Cracker factories across India to make fire crackers, the fire crackers that I had joyfully burnt in all Diwali festivals prior to that year.

While, we the fortunate ones, used our soft and nimble hands and fingers to write, paint and play, in many a villages in India, children like me were labouring to churn out fireworks working for more than 10-15 hours a day, contracting unknown health ailments in the process of making these tiring efforts to feed themselves and their families.

Kids like her make fire crackers to light up your Diwali. That we burn crackers made by the nimble hands and fingers of young children – is not something that you should feel happy or celebrate about. This is an assorted collection of images taken from various news websites to convey the start and dim reality of firecracker production across to you all (Image Copyright: http://www.ilo.org)

A guilt overtook my conscience that day.

We pledged not to burn fire crackers any more, that Diwali onwards.

The pledge of ours was further strengthened when my fellow classmates enacted a play themed on this subject of ‘Child labour and Fire Crackers’ at the first ever Delhi School Eco-Mela (Eco-fair), held in the lawns of Delhi Public School, Mathura road.

Friends joined in and we convinced our family to not force us to burn fire crackers either.

It has been 18 years since those days and we have been able to stick to the promise we made to ourselves and the pledge we undertook and not burnt a fire cracker ever since.

In 1997, there was no internet we had access to, and neither were there these host of news channels, but today there are many and despite ‘legislations banning the use of children for labour’, many a million kids continue to be exploited and forced to work in and for such fire cracker units even today.

Spare a minute to read one such detailed news article, a 2014 dated news story and watch through the news clips below and think a little before you pick up the next fire cracker to burn this Diwali.

Now choose your next step..

~

Vasudha

(Last revised on 7th November 2015)