pune animal activists have taken to social media to explain the detrimental effects that loud fire crackers have on dogs and cats in order to encourage people to celebrate diwali in a more mindful mannerin the last five days over 15 dogs have ran away due to the sound of crackers in wakkad we have a closeknit group who works for animal welfare and we keep an eye out for any new dog spotted in the area we have started putting up posters in places such as paan shops medical shops and atms with messages on how to celebrate while being sensitive to animals that coexist in our space said activist anita shetty founder of wakad animal rescue group she cited an example of how a dog ran away from her society due to the sound of crackers and found refuge in a nearby medical shop shivering profusely he refused to come out of the shop after much coaxing i carried him home she added surashree deshpande animal activist said every diwali there is a surge in the number of pets reported missing while sometimes they are found many times they run out on the street and traffic or get disoriented and lose their way homebhairavi dumale resident of sinhagad road has five dogs my dogs get so anxious with loud sounds they hide under the bed or in dark corners the worst is they stop eating overanxietychinthana gopinath a rescuer said the situation is worse for strays you can coax pets by being careful but if stray dogs are brought home it is against their instinct to live in closed spaces disoriented and distressed they end up running frantically and get displaced usually finding themselves in danger