Diwali: A festival of lights for us and darkness for animals

The festive season is just around the corner. It‘s time for families and friends to break away from the routine duties and get together with joys and happiness to celebrate the festive season keeping social distancing in mind. The past few months have been really tough and challenging for all of us. This crisis has also had a deep impact on road-side animals. It’s time for all of us to understand that your enjoyment should never be a reason for someone else’s miseries. Firecrackers Sound like concentrated fun. Maybe, for all of us. But for our speechless pets, animals, and birds, it is veritably the worst time of the year.

During Diwali, watch the behaviour and body language of the animals. Their tails are between their legs. Cowering in fear, they try to hide, unable to stand the din of crackers. Dogs and cats have highly sensitive hearing abilities. They hear sounds that the human ear cannot. That is why sounds of continuous loud bursts are literally nerve-racking. They sense danger. Dogs may display psychological symptoms of stress like shivering, drooling, howling, and excessive barking. Most of them hide under furniture or look for dark corners to hide. Some suffer from loss of bladder control. Others get gripped with temporary diarrhoea. Vets say that a sudden bright burst of light can result in partial or even permanent blindness in these animals. Many lose appetite.

The deafening crackers have been known to cause temporary deafness in animals and disorient birds, making them fly out of their shelters into alien corners in search of safety. As most birds have poor vision, especially at night, they bump into unknown objects and injure themselves. The smoke also affects them. The bright glare of burning firecrackers can also burn or permanently blind flying birds. Owls, kites, and bats are the worst-affected. It’s high time for all of us to realise what we are doing?

Calling yourself humans and showing no humanity makes no sense. Calling yourself educated and not applying your brain makes no sense.

Let's make this a better place for animals where they feel loved and protected. Let’s make this Diwali happy for animals as well.