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Keep Pets Calm During New Year's Fireworks

BALTIMORE (WJZ) --- There are creatures amongst us who will not enjoy what is going to happen on Wednesday night. As Mike Schuh reports, there are ways to keep our pets calm when the fireworks explode on New Year's night.

To make displays so big and so high, they use a lot of gunpowder to launch them into the sky. The bigger the shell, the bigger the boom.

It's a night where pets can be confused and scared.

"Fireworks can be very disturbing to pets," Aleen Gabby with Maryland SPCA said. "They don't quite understand the noise and there can be reverberations and a lot of pets become frightened when fireworks go off."

The Maryland SPCA has some tips from keeping your animal in its own room, to playing music to disguise the sound of fireworks.

"If your pet is becoming upset at the sound of fireworks, your inclination is to comfort them, but that will reinforce his nervous behavior and he'll do it more," Gabby said.

It's not just the large displays either. With illegal fireworks just over the Maryland Pennsylvania border, backyard and street side explosions are everywhere.

"There are some soothing pheromones available from some pet stores so if you find one, you can spray it on a blanket or towel so it can be washed and it soothes some pets, not all, but it's nice to have available," Gabby said.

The best and easiest thing to do is bring your pet inside, away from all the noise.

The Maryland SPCA says some years they've taken in pets that have become disoriented and scared by the explosions and have run away from home.

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