CHANDIGARH: Diwali is a dangerous time for animals . This year, things were relatively better in Mohali and Chandigarh. But in Panchkula, the situation was not that good.Animal lovers who volunteered to go out and help animals said there were no burn injuries this year. But a few dogs met with accidents due to anxiety and many were lost. In Panchkula, a dog died and many went missing from their locality.Although all animals are prone to injuries, dogs are affected the most as they have sensitive ears. This makes them vulnerable to heart attack. In anxiety, they may fall from a height or run towards the road and meet with an accident. Meenakshi Mahapatra, member of Panchkula Animal Welfare Association said, “In Panchkula, it was not a good situation as we lost a dog who met with an accident and died. Many dogs are missing from their territory. We found two dogs who were restless and terrorized due to crackers.”Volunteers of Furever Friends Foundation, which operated a free ambulance service on Diwali, said there were 7 to 8 calls for injury and no burn cases were reported this year. However, there were four to five cases of missing dogs. Gagan Bains, a volunteer of Furever Friends said, “there were more anxiety related problems. Early in the morning, founder director Vikas Luthra attended a call from Mohali. A lost and scared street dog was hiding at someone’s home.”UT joint director (animal husbandry) Dr Kanwarjit Singh said, “Diwali night was ok. There were no calls at night. But one case of cracker injury was reported from Ambala on Thursday. It was an improved situation this time.” UT animal husbandry department extended ambulance service till midnight on Diwali and there were doctors available till midnight. The emergency OPD of veterinary hospital in Sector 22 was working round the clock.Till last year, they had been receiving cases of eye injuries, blisters, deafness, shock and anxiety on Diwali.Vikas luthra founder director furever friends sharing a case said, "The worst case we had today was of Mac. We had been treating him from past 20 days. He was paralyzed. But still, his health was improving. However, due to the crackers' noise, he couldn't run away and got a heart attack. And we came to know that he died in the night."

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