Miami-Dade County Animal Services urges the community to practice pet safety during New Year’s Eve celebrations

Miami-Dade County Animal Services (Animal Services) urges the community to follow simple safety tips for a pet-safe New Year’s Eve celebration. With the proper preparations, we can ensure everyone will have a wonderful New Year, including our pets.

For most, New Year’s Eve means fireworks, hosting parties or going out to view a fireworks display. These festivities can cause undue stress for pets – and may even be dangerous. Shelters across the country see an increase in population around the holidays because more pets get out during the festivities. Here are some simple steps pet owners can take to make sure their pet is safe and doesn’t get lost.

·    Before the fireworks or party begin, identify a safe, quiet, and secure indoor area for your pet.
·    Turn on gentle music to help avoid undue stress and injury from the fireworks or party noises. 
·    Walk your dogs and feed your pets early. 
·    Keep pets indoors. 
·    If your pet requires anxiety medication, make sure to administer it before noise from fireworks or party begins. 
·    Consider an anxiety or thunder jacket and give your pet a special treat or toy in the safe area you have set up for them. 
·    If ingested by a pet, unused fireworks are toxic and can cause serious illness. Be sure to pick up any fireworks or debris after the festivities. 

Fireworks and loud celebrations can scare pets and may cause them to run away. To ensure that you pet is quickly returned home: 
·    Make sure your pet is wearing a well-fitting collar with up-to-date license tags and consider having them microchipped.
·    If your pet is microchipped, be sure to register the microchip with your name and contact information. 
·    If you’ve moved recently, be sure to update the microchip and license tags with your new contact information. 
·    If your pet does become lost, we recommend creating lost pet flyers for your neighborhood and posting to social media. Petco Love Lost and 24petconnect are additional sites that can help you to find your pet.  

If you find a lost pet:
·    Bring the pet to your local veterinary office to see if the pet has a microchip and contact the owner. 
·    If the pet does not have a microchip, consider the pet to be lost, not stray. Often, lost pets are found close to their homes. Keep the pet close to where you found it, when possible. 
·    Create flyers for your neighborhood or the area where the pet was found and post about the found pet on social media, and walk them around the neighborhood canvasing for their home.

Miami-Dade County Animal Services’ Surrender/Receiving Office is currently closed until further notice as the shelter is at high occupancy and has limited kennels to house additional pets. The limited shelter space available is being prioritized for injured, diseased, or aggressive stray dogs; as well as abused, woefully neglected and confiscated animals.

About Miami-Dade County Animal Services  
Every year, Miami-Dade County Animal Services Department (Animal Services) provides care and refuge for 28,000 to 30,000 lost and abandoned dogs and cats. Every day, Animal Services staff works diligently to find life-long homes for these abandoned animals by facilitating onsite adoptions, hosting offsite adoptions at events and locations throughout the community, and working collaboratively with rescue organizations, volunteers and adoption partners. For more information visit, www.miamidade.gov/animals and/or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @adoptmiamipets.