nagpur for animals and birds the festival of lights comes with darkness and stress every diwali firecrackers cost them their livesaccording to veterinary experts bursting of crackers causes severe stress and panic among animals many times leading to mortality data available with some ngos shows a dramatic increase in pets lost during the commotion of celebrationwhile pet owners are taking every bit of precaution to keep their dogs and cats unharmed from the festivities animal welfare organizations across the country have launched different campaigns to create awareness on how traumatic firecrackers can be for animals and birdswith dogs having higher hearing range they are the worst affected my pet labrador refuses to eat for days together during diwali as soon as crackers start bursting in evening he starts shivering and hides under the kitchen platform says parul pande a resident of jaitala to keep her pet safe she has changed the timings of dogwalking i dont let my pet out in evenings she saidwhen noiseemitting crackers like atom bomb and series crackers are burned my pet dog panics and his heart rate gets very high we tried putting cotton inside his ears but that didnt help says tejtarun nadupuru a resident of friends colonyresorting to social media many organizations celebrities and citizens are trying to spread precautionary measures ngo humane society international has created videos on dos and donts to protect animals and culling of forest owls during the festive seasonmany cases have been reported in which people sacrifice owls as part of some superstitious rituals this year we are uploading videos asking people to report any owl catching or killing activities said ng jayasimha state animal welfare board member and managing director of ngo humane society international indiain nagpur ngo save speechless organisation sso is campaigning at different residential areas educational institutes and slums people living in slum areas often illtreat animals by tying crackers to their tails while many dogs die of shock birds too die due to rockets or when their nests catch fire while on one hand they get lost due to poor night vision on the other the sharp light of crackers can lead to permanent blindness said smita mire founder of ssotwitteratis are pledging to protect animals and birds by celebrating nocrackerdiwali in a video celebrity rajiv lakshman has appealed to include animals pets neighbours in the celebrations by not bursting firecrackersin a recent tweet pet forum poochmate advises to apply a few drops of lavender oil behind dogs ears to keep them calm