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Do You Worry about your animals being outside on Halloween night?

1K views 11 replies 12 participants last post by  Whisper22 
#1 ·
I was just wondering if any of you worry about your pets being outside on Halloween night? Do any of you stall your horses or bring pets in?

I've heard stories of pets and animals being harmed on Halloween night...but these are usually second hand stories. Y ou know, like someone says the read it in the paper or such...

So I am wondering just how prevalentl animal/pet killings or being harmed really is or is it just an urban legend tale sort of thing.

And do any of you bring your horses or pets in tonight just because it's Halloween night?
 
#2 ·
I completely understand where your coming from.
It wasn't halloween night, but a horse from my barn got a piece of twine deliberately tied around his neck so tight he could barely breathe when they found him the next moning.
Thankfully he is okay now, but he still sports a nasty scar all the way around his neck (the upper part of his neck).

And we never found out who it was from.

His owners now keep him inside.
 
#3 ·
We've always had outside dogs and left them outside. The only time we brought them in was if they were barking too much or scaring kids, but we've never had any issues here before. I've heard stories of pets/livestock being purposely harmed, but never specifically on Halloween night.
 
#5 ·
I have had a first-hand experience with an animal being harmed on Halloween night. Warning: If you're squeamish, don't read this.

I had a black kitten named Midnight that I found dumped in a neighbor's driveway when I was ten. She was about four-weeks-old. I brought her home and introduced her to my tom cat, Coriantimr (my parents didn't believe in spaying/neutering at that point...especially not for outdoor animals). They became the best of friends.

This was in about January. Fast forward to Halloween night.

My parents didn't allow animals in the house back then, but my cats had a shed (was my playhouse) that they could get into if the need arose, so I didn't think much of it. The morning after Halloween, I went to go feed them and neither cat was there. That was very unusual, since they usually slept in the shed and were always there in the morning to see me and get fed. So, I went over to my friend's house across the street (was diagonally across the street) to see if he'd seen my cats, since they went over to his house every once in a while. He said that he saw them both around dusk the night before, but that he hadn't seen them since. He did say, though, that some kids had been hanging out in the field next door all night (the field was directly across from my house).

So, we decided to go investigate the field, just in case Midnight or Cori was over there. We split up and started on opposite corners of the one acre field. After about five minutes of tracking back and forth, my friend called me over. He had found what was left of my precious Midnight. The kids who were hanging out in the field had apparently caught her (not difficult to do since she was friendly) and basically hacked her to pieces.

A week later, my friend found Cori at another neighbor's house. He was unharmed, but the people tried to claim that he was theirs and had been for several years. My friend came and got me and we did the old "call the animal and see who he comes to" test. Yeah, Cori didn't even hesitate and came straight to me. The people then said that he had wandered into their yard on Halloween night and they decided to keep him so he'd be safe. Too bad they couldn't have done the same for poor little Midnight.

Now, you might think that this has made me overly protective of my animals on Halloween, but it hasn't. My dog is usually inside with me, and if he isn't, people are usually too scared of him to do anything to him (he has a VERY big bark and doesn't like strange people coming onto the property without my express permission...and sometimes not even then). My horse is at a boarding facility that has never had a Halloween-related problem or incident. So, I trust that my animals are safe.
 
#7 ·
One Halloween my horse was paintballed! We had some concrete horses at the end of our driveway and they were paintballed too. I was going to get on the bus on Nov 1 (it was in the 90's) and I noticed the concrete horses had big blue splotches on them. Then I noticed my horse (we lived on a dirt road and her pasture was close to the road) and she had two big blue blotches on her too! She wasn't hurt but I was so mad. Apparantly the kids who did it paintballed the whole town and were caught and made to do community service. I was only about 12 but I sure remember it!
 
#8 ·
We do keep our cat in on Halloween, but primarily because we live in a college town and any big drinking night makes me nervous about drunk college students not paying attention and hitting the cat while driving. However, since it gets dark so early this time of year, "kitty curfew" is close to 6pm most days, Halloween or not.
 
#9 ·
I just thank my lucky stars cats are counted as wild animals...my guys aren't friendly towards strangers at all. And they gang up. They have toppled a few people before now. Came downstairs once to find a visitor flat on his face with six cats pinning his limbs and neck...it was freaky!
I try to keep them indoors but they can open the windows.
 
#10 ·
Drafty - What a horrible story. :shock:

I do worry about my horses being out at night sometimes. They usually stay close to the barn, but still.

I'm extremely paranoid about my beloved black cat going out at night, especially on Halloween. He gets really mad and howls his head off when I don't let him out, but I couldn't bear it if some evil person got their hands on him.

Isn't he handsome?
 
#11 ·
I never even thought of this, the world can be such a horrible place, people shouldn't have to worry about their animals being hurt like that. Makes me so mad.
Rena goes in at night anyways, but the cats stay in or out, whichever they like, they run from strange people anyways.
 
#12 ·
I've never had anything bad happen to any of my animals on Halloween, but I don't feel comfortable leaving my dog out. We are never home Halloween night and our area is a mixture of really nice homes and random getto streets. Because of my dogs breed, I don't like taking the chance of so many people seeing her and thinking she might make a nice fighting dog. I'm not sure anyone would stick around long enough to catch her. She has a special bark snarl thing she does for people she does't know, but really all it takes is a kind voice and she comes right to you.
 
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