Solar Eclipse Warning Issued to Pet Owners

Pet owners living or traveling in the path of the upcoming total solar eclipse are urged to keep their pets indoors to prevent them from suffering.

While experts say that the animals are unlikely to be harmed by looking towards the sun, they are concerned that the animals may react to the large crowd of humans, and ask that they be kept away.

“That way, they don’t get scared when other people get really emotional,” Chris Barry, a veterinarian at Kindred Spirits Veterinary in Orrington, Maine, told local news channel WABI on Wednesday. “I’m more worried about the animals being outside and possibly anxious. More anxious being in a strange situation than not.”

On April 8, the total solar eclipse – when the sun is completely blocked by the moon – will be visible for different lengths of time along a route from northern Mexico, through the Midwest and all the way to New England. The path of totality – the area in which it will be seen –reach 13 statesas well as smaller areas of Tennessee and Michigan.

The Federal Highway Administration says that while about 32 million people live in the path of the total eclipse, between 1-5 million more are expected to travel to prime viewing locations to see it. raising concerns about some areas that lack food and animals.

Veterinary institutions have said that pet owners have been more concerned about whether their furry friends could be harmed by looking at the sun – after warnings the man who protects his eyes while watching the celestial show.

But they assured that this was unlikely to be a problem for dogs and cats, who tend to avoid looking at bright lights.

“Dogs and cats in general have an aversion to the bright light emitted by the sun as they look more directly,” Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, Florida, wrote last week. “The discomfort it causes them while squinting is enough to nullify any curiosity they might have to look directly into the sun.”

As such, common domestic animals were probably “no more inclined to look at the sun than they would normally be.”

Even pet owners shouldn’t try to give their four-legged friends eclipse glasses. “I think it’s more just to cause anxiety to have something in your face,” Barry told WABI.

While pets are unlikely to be exposed to the sun of their own accord, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it’s best to keep them indoors with blinds or curtains drawn because ” they pay a lot of attention to how we react to a situation and it can reflect our behavior.”

Little is known about how an eclipse itself affects the behavior of animals, since there are only a handful of opportunities to conduct scientific studies. However, scientists know that animals tend to use the cycle of the sun to regulate their daily patterns, which an eclipse can potentially confuse. which leads to anxiety.

“Researchers have found that most animals react to a solar eclipse by starting their nighttime routine as totality approaches,” said Austin Garner, a biology professor at Syracuse University who studies animal behavior. “Animal vocalists common in evening choruses, such as frogs and crickets, may begin to sing, while animals that vocalize during the day, such as most cicadas, may stop” .

He added that some studies suggest that domesticated animals, such as dogs and horses, as well as some zoo animals, show nervous behavior during the eclipse, “such as becoming silent and still, starting to pace or cluster, and be particularly vigilant.”

A study of zoo animal behavior conducted by Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biology at North Carolina State University, during the last total eclipse in the United States in 2017 found that Galapagos tortoises began at mating and the giraffes began to gallop, which they usually do only if chased.