Halloween is a dangerous night for cats

Halloween will very soon be upon us again and with it some very real dangers, not only to children, but cats as well. Not necessarily black cats as is so popularly thought.

 
It's true animal shelters like the Animal Welfare League, Chicago's largest animal shelter, stop adopting out black cats during the entire month of October. This is due to a rash of  "returns" usually stating the cat just did not work out. While no actual proof exists on record, it is assumed by shelter workers that its more likely these cats were used as "decorations" or the "familiar" of a witches costume. The people who adopted the cat obviously not even considering the cruelty of being brought home as a pet only to be returned to shelter life.

But even more troubling than that are the stories of ritualistic animal mutilations that increase in rural areas during this time of year. Ask any animal control officer from one of these area's and they will tell you that is the case. Now whether these so called sacrifices are actually satanic in nature and stemming from a true belief and practice of a bizarre religion or teenagers attempting to conjure up something or just plain scare people is not the focus of this article. To the animal being mutilated and sacrificed and its owner, why is inconsequential.

Since adoptions at animal shelters have become scrutinized and difficult during Halloween, these people have turned to the streets for their victims. Which brings us to the actual point of this article.

While it is never a safe practice to allow your pets of any kind to roam free, Halloween is an especially dangerous time for any pet, and even more so for cats to be outside unattended. The suggestion from shelter workers to animal control officers is to keep your animals, especially your cats indoors for the month of October. For the actual night of Halloween itself it is suggested to keep your cats, dogs and even birds in a room that is closed off from the main part of the house so that they cannot sneak out the door by accident while you are handing out the goodies to the goblins.

While there are a lot of old cliche's and superstitions that surround this topic in general, there is one cliche' that fits here. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. With that said I wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween.