Threats to your pet’s Safety outside the home

Threats to your pet’s Safety outside the home

There are many very effective ways of keeping your pet safe, just by being aware of the hazards and dangers outside your home, including other animals and people, vehicles and your own fencing and yard and common mistakes and accidents that happen in these areas that unintentionally cause an animal be become harmed or lost. 

Mistakes or Accidents Outside the Home

Injuries such as falling off fences, falling down holes or getting stuck in construction sites or sewer pipes are other common types of injuries sustained by animal allowed to run loose. If your pet is keep safe at home in a secure yard, these risks don’t exist, unless the pet becomes loose by accident.

Vehicles

If your pet is allowed into the yard unattended on a regular basis, then there is a whole new set of potential threats to your pet’s ability to stay safe at home. If you allow your pet to roam outside, past your secure, fenced yard, like many indoor/outdoor cats, then hazards to your pet’s safety obviously increase. When an animal is allowed outside to roam loose, the most hazardous risks to your pet’s safety are vehicles on the road, other animals, disease and injury and other humans. Even if you live in a rural/remote area, there is still a risk of your pet being struck by a vehicle. Automobiles are one of the most common ways a pet is injured or killed if allowed to roam loose. When I worked as an Animal Control Officer, there was always the daily duty of "deads" on the roadways. Many days, each officer would have several calls in one shift just for dead animals on the road. Sometimes, we had to pick up deceased wildlife, but most of the calls were domestic animals like cats, dogs and rabbits who had escaped by accident or been allowed to roam.

Other Animals, Domestic and Wild

Another common hazard to your pet’s safety if allowed to roam loose is the threat of being attacked by another animal. This is more common with cats due to the persistent problem with loose dogs. Many dogs, even if they live with a cat and are friendly with cats, can’t resist to chase a cat that runs. I have heard of dogs who were friendly with cats, actually causing severe injury or death, even if it is an accident, when they catch a cat after chasing it. Many cats, if they spend a regular amount of time outside, have an escape plan if they get chased by a dog, but that escape plan may lead them into the path of a car, or the dog may be able to catch them if the cat can’t make it to a tree or fence, or  if the chase goes on for a couple of blocks, the cat may get chased into the territory of another cat and get attacked but that cat. 

Not only do other domestic animals cause risks of safety to an animal allowed to roam loose, wildlife can cause many severe injuries or painful death. In urban and suburban areas, threats from raccoons, bobcats and coyotes are very common. In rural areas, multiple threats come from mountain lions, bears and deer with horns. 

Disease and injury are another common type of safety risk to your pet. Even a vaccinated animal can contract a disease if it comes in contact with an infected animal or a carrier animal. If a domestic animal gets bitten by an animal that is a known rabies carrier like a raccoon or skunk or bat, who are common in all areas, the disease can be transmitted. Other types of diseases like distemper and parvovirus exists as threats to dogs and feline leukemia can be passed to a vaccinated animal. 

Human Beings

Finally, one of the most common types of threats to your pet is other humans, and for the most part are usually well intentioned people. For example, some people will immediately take an animal to their local shelter when finding it loose on the street, expecting the owner to look there first, which is the right thing to do. However, some people may keep the animal at their home while looking for the owner because they don’t want to take the animal to a shelter. Many shelters require this person to also file a “Found” report at the shelter in case the owner comes to the shelter looking for their pet. Many shelters have a certain number of days the report has to be filed before the finder can  do as they choose by either keeping the animal or finding another home or bringing them to the shelter. 

Some people mistakingly believe that when they and an animal loose on the road, whether they have collars or tags or a microchip, that the animal is in an abusive home, forgetting that they animal could have become loose by accident or mistake, and not intentionally. These types of people won’t take the animal to a shelter or attempt to find the home. Also, if the animal has been lost or missing for some time, the animal could be in such poor shape like underweight or the coat is dirty and matted, the finder may think that the animal has always been in this condition, forgetting that they may be lost for a while. 

In addition, there are some people, when they find an animal, won’t take the animal to the local shelter, but instead will take the animal to the shelter in their own area, completely forgetting that the owners are looking in the immediate area. 

There is also a common misconception that if an animal is not wearing any visible ID at the time they are found, people automatically assume that the animal is abandoned and won’t make an attempt to find the owners and will either keep the animal or find another home. 

And then there are the people who blatantly won’t attempt to find the home, despite the animal wearing visible ID and collar. They believe in a “Finders Keepers” way of life. 

Check your fences and gates for security

If you have both a front yard and a back yard that you allow your pet to have access to, both need separate considerations to think about for your pet’s safety. If you have a back yard that is completely and securely fenced that is at least six feet tall all around, then make sure you regularly check both the top and bottom for holes of broken or loose boards. If you have a dog that tends to hit the fence or scratch at it to get to something on the other side, then make sure you regularly check the integrity of the boards for any cracks or weak spots and repair them immediately. 

If you have a dog that tries to jump the fence or escape, you can try hot wiring the top of the fence or add a couple off extra feet of lattice. However, my best answer to that solution is to find out why the dog is trying to escape. Is he/she bored and alone a lot? Is the dog trying to get to something more exciting on the other side like a female in heat or a dog fight or a cat to chase? Try to figure out the problem rather than working on just the symptoms of fence jumping. 

Also, check the gates. Do you have self closing gates? I have found those to work wonders to help to keep pets into a yard, especially with children or busy household. They eliminate one problem of always remembering to close the gate. However, this assumes they aren’t being propped open, which is how in one case, the dog was able to escape. The landscapers had propped open the self closing gate, but forgot to remove the rock and the wife let the dog into the yard, not knowing the gate wasn't closed. 

Is your fence shared by a neighbor? And are any repairs to be agreed upon by both parties? I would take this information consideration when reviewing repairs and maintenance on your fence to keep your pet safe inside your yard. 

As safe as your own front yard

If you have a fenced front yard, then there are different considerations for our pet's safety that are different from your backyard. Even if your yard is 100% securely fenced and locked, if your yard and your pets are visible to the people passing on the word, either by foot or by vehicle, your pets will become targets to pet thieves. If your pets spend a regular amount of time in your front yard, no matter if they are purebred or Mixed Breed, your pet’s chances of becoming a victim to a pet thief increases. The reason for this is because pet thefts do exist and they are always out looking for their next victim. These people have to have ongoing supply of animals to supple to re-sellers for supply labs, puppy mills, pet shops and other resellers. 

Another danger your pet faces by spending unattended time in your front yard is that somebody could enter your yard and accidentally leave the gate open or not close it properly, which allows your pet to escape. The person coming in may not even know there is a dog loose in the yard. Examples of this would be mail and package deliveries or contractors or meter readers. My suggestion would be that if your pet is to be in the front yard, then be there with them. If you can’t watch them then maybe put a locked padlock on the gate and also always have a big visible sign on the gate that tells people there are dogs in the yard. The sign on my front gate says, “Loose Dogs. Do not Enter. Leave All Packages at the Gate” I never have anyone accidentally coming into my yard for any reason. Package carriers are extremely grateful that you tell them that there are dogs in the yard and that is is OK to leave the package there.