Every year in the United States we celebrate our country’s Independence Day. While this is a fun celebration for many, for others it is filled with fear, stress and anxiety.

I care deeply about animals and people. The stress of fireworks on pets, domesticated animals, people and wild animals is unnecessary and harmful. When an animal is subjected to constant stressful events such as fireworks explosions, the animal can develop some psychological or behavioral long-term effects. This is what happened for our dog Odie, who now suffers from generalized anxiety.

The only way to end the chaos of fireworks is for all neighborhood fireworks and illegal fireworks to stop. In the meantime, here are some tips from the American Kennel Club to help you support your pet during this stressful event:

• Make sure your pet always has a safe, comfortable and quiet place to hide, either in a closet, under a piece of furniture or in their crate.
• Make sure your pet has a current ID tag or is microchipped.
• Keep toys and long-lasting treats in your pet’s safe area to make the area more fun and to provide distractions from loud noises and flashes.
• Make time to exercise during daylight hours; then keep them all safely indoors before the fireworks begin.
• Avoid outdoor potty breaks during fireworks or put them on a leash and make it quick.
• At dusk, close your windows and blinds and turn on music or your television to muffle the loud noises created by social gatherings and the booming thunder of fireworks. We also use a large air filter on high speed to create white noise.
• Put your pets in the car and drive somewhere remote where there are no fireworks.
• Thundershirt has been shown to help some cats and dogs. Its cradles the pet’s body like swaddling to provide comfort. That has not helped our pets.
• There are many herbal calming supplements on the market, but I have found most do not work well for this higher stress level event.
• Contact your vet to discuss further options to decrease firework-related trauma in pets.

We have made the choice to give up fireworks at home for our pet’s sanity and our neighbors wellbeing. I invite you to consider extinguishing personal fireworks from your holiday plans. There are many fun ways to celebrate this July 4!

May you have a safe, sane, peaceful July 4 wherever you are! Thanks for listening in today and remember love makes all things possible.