Fear of Loud Fireworks Can Be Danger to Dogs : Animals: Terrified of the noisy pyrotechnics, canines often run away, leap fences, even crash through windows, trying to escape their anxiety.

For veterinarians, animal advocates and dog owners throughout Ventura County, the Fourth of July weekend is total bedlam.

When the fireworks begin, frightened dogs bolt from their homes and head for the streets, where they get lost--or worse, hit by cars. Terrified canines also hurt themselves when they jump through screen doors, crash through plate-glass windows, dig under fences and leap over walls.

“Fourth of July is the worst time of year for us,” said Joyce George, president of the Humane Society of Ventura County. “It takes us weeks to reunite pets with owners.”

George said her volunteers patrol neighborhoods close to fireworks shows to look for runaways.

“If they’re in trouble, we scoop them up,” she said.

County animal regulation officials, who also take in stray dogs, say they plan to increase staffing over the holiday weekend. Normally, only one officer is available after hours, but three will be on duty tonight when eight fireworks shows are scheduled around the county.

In Ventura County, Fillmore is the only city where people can legally buy and set off non-explosive fireworks. But officials acknowledge that such fireworks are ignited all over the county.

Sometimes adults and children deliberately annoy pets, animal regulation officials said.

“People will toss so-called ‘Safe and Sane’ fireworks into a neighbor’s yard, and kids are disgusting little creatures who do all sorts of terrible things to animals,” said Kathy Jenks, director of animal regulation. “It’s absolute insanity for animals because the fireworks scare them to death.”

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Veterinarians and animal lovers said cats are not as affected by fireworks. They will often hide but won’t react as violently as dogs.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Evans, who lives in Ojai, said fireworks prompted one of his dogs to run away last year.

“We didn’t find him until the next day, and we found him six miles away at a fast-food place, shaking,” Evans said.

Evans learned his lesson.

“We’re going to put them in the house with us on Fourth of July,” he said.

Vicky Alcasas’ golden retriever was hit by a car and died after it ran away from her Ojai home on New Year’s Eve.

The dog was in the back yard and was scared by fireworks that neighbors had illegally set off, Alcasas said. Although it was surrounded by a chain-link fence, the terrified animal broke a pole cemented to the ground and pulled the fence open, Alcasas said.

“We got in the car and drove all around looking for him,” Alcasas said. “Around 3 in the afternoon the next day, we found him off Maricopa Highway on the side of the road, dead. It was horrible.”

Like Evans, she plans to keep her other dog inside this year.

Veterinarians say that staying with animals indoors to comfort them and turning on televisions and radios to drown out the noise is the best way to prevent problems. For dogs that especially react to noise, they recommend enrolling in a noise-desensitizing program or administering tranquilizers a few hours before the fireworks begin.

“It’s an anxiety attack, and it builds up to the point where they need to escape,” said Dr. Karen Moore, a Ventura veterinarian who stocks up on tranquilizers every July. “When they leave, they don’t know where they’re going and, in the midst of their running, they might get hit by a car.”

Dr. Sean McCormack, who works at the Conejo Valley Veterinary Clinic, said dogs have no experience with fireworks and the foreign sound terrifies them.

Deena Case-Pall, an animal behavior consultant, said pets can be conditioned to become accustomed to loud noises.

“It takes a long time, but you can desensitize them,” Case-Pall said.

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Case-Pall, who hosts a radio show on animals, said she receives calls up to six weeks after the Fourth of July about skittishness in dogs. Many are afraid to be in the back yard alone, she said.

“We’ve got to stop the legal sales of fireworks,” Case-Pall said. “We have wonderful public performances of fireworks, and those are the way to celebrate. Otherwise, we’re talking about a traumatic incident.”

Animal regulation and Humane Society officials also caution residents to put identification tags on their pets in case they do escape.

To find a lost dog, George recommends looking in newspapers for notices of lost dogs, distributing flyers, and checking with Humane Society and animal regulation officials.

“If people would only put identification on their animals,” George said, “it would make our jobs a lot easier and they would see their pets again.”

FYI

If your dog runs away this holiday weekend, check with Ventura County animal regulation at 388-4341 or the Humane Society of Ventura County at 656-5031. Dogs with identification tags stand a much greater chance of being reunited with their owners.