Thanksgiving Pet Safety Tips for Dinner, Guests and Cleanup
Plan a quiet room, set ground rules for guests and keep turkey bones and other scraps out of reach from dinner through cleanup.
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and hosts with dogs or cats have a few extra things to plan before guests arrive. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals flags poultry bones, onions, garlic and raw yeast dough as holiday hazards. It also recommends giving pets somewhere quiet to go if the house gets crowded.
The time to set up that space is before the first guest rings the bell. During dinner, the cook may be moving hot dishes while other people clear the table. A plan for the front door, the kitchen and the trash means everyone knows what to do when those jobs overlap.
Set up a place away from the door
Choose a room your pet already knows, with water and a familiar bed or blanket. Put it away from the main path between the front door and dining room. If your pet usually moves freely through the house, decide which door or gate will separate the quiet area before you start receiving people.
Tell guests where to put coats and bags. The ASPCA points out that visitors may carry medications, so a handbag set on the floor can give a curious dog access to something you wouldn’t normally leave out. An upstairs room, a closed closet or a shelf your pets cannot reach works better than a pile by the entrance.
Give visitors a simple instruction when they arrive: keep the designated door shut, and ask before letting the pet out. If you have a guest who will be making several trips to the car, make sure they know which exterior door to use and who is watching the pet when they come back in.
Keep the kitchen and dinner table separate
The ASPCA recommends keeping your pet on its usual diet during the holiday. Tell guests ahead of time, especially if children might offer bites under the table. A dish that looks plain may contain ingredients that are hard to spot after cooking. Onions and garlic, for example, can be mixed into stuffing, gravy or other sides.
Raw yeast dough needs particular attention while it rises. Put it somewhere the dog or cat cannot reach and keep an eye on the counter when you move bowls or take a break. The same applies when you carve the bird and temporarily set aside bones or scraps. The ASPCA identifies poultry bones as a choking hazard.
If you want the dog or cat to have something to do during dinner, put some of its normal food in a puzzle toy it already uses. Set it out before plates start moving. That gives someone in the household one clear job and keeps the decision about what the pet eats away from a table full of guests.
Keep the trash out of reach through cleanup
Cleanup creates a new opportunity for a pet to reach food. Bones, food wrappers, chocolate and scraps may all end up in one bag, and the bag can sit unattended while people take plates to the sink. The ASPCA recommends emptying the trash during the day or keeping pets away from the area where it is stored.
Decide where you will put the bag when it is full, and avoid leaving it on the floor near the exit. If someone else is helping clean, show them the covered bin or closed room you plan to use. A pet that stayed out of the kitchen during dinner may be back underfoot as soon as people begin saying goodbye.
Once visitors leave, look around the dining room and kitchen for dropped food and bags before letting the pet return to its usual space. That last check also gives you a chance to pick up scraps under chairs and move any serving dishes you still need to refrigerate.
Keep the veterinarian’s number handy
Before Thanksgiving, look up your regular veterinarian’s holiday hours and save the number of an emergency clinic. If you suspect a pet swallowed something unsafe, contact a veterinarian or an animal poison control service promptly. Be ready to describe what it may have eaten and when you noticed. The American Veterinary Medical Association lists the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at 888-426-4435.
For a household with several people helping, put those numbers somewhere everyone can find them. The same person who takes the pet away from the food can tell someone else what was eaten and ask them to make the call. Planning for that possibility takes less time when the house is quiet.
You can write a short checklist for the day and leave it near the kitchen. List where the pet will stay during arrivals, who will feed it and where the full trash bag will go. Use the same plan for the evening if guests will return later or if the household is serving another meal.
Photo: Aidan Piercy via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0. Cropped.
