Keep Your pets warm, and safe this winter

Date: Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 31, 2024

For Imme­di­ate Release

Fred­er­ic­ton, New Brunswick – Cats and dogs get cold when the tem­per­a­ture drops, and they may expe­ri­ence increased dis­com­fort or become more sus­cep­ti­ble to ill­ness. With tem­per­a­tures plum­met­ing in the win­ter sea­son and inclement weath­er, the New Brunswick SPCA seeks to raise aware­ness about keep­ing your pets warm and safe. 

Despite nat­ur­al fur coats which act as a lay­er of warmth and pro­tec­tion, all pets can suf­fer from cold. From hyper­ther­mia to frost­bite, your pet is at risk dur­ing the win­ter. Dogs are hap­pi­est when tak­en out fre­quent­ly for walks and exer­cise, but should be indoors the rest of the time. Under no cir­cum­stances should cats be left outdoors.

“There is a com­mon mis­con­cep­tion that pets are ​“fine” when left out­side in the cold. This is absolute­ly not true! All pets need suit­able shel­ter from the ele­ments and should not be left out­side for long peri­ods in freez­ing weath­er,” said Tony Porter, Chief Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cer at the New Brunswick SPCA. 

“If it’s too cold for you, it’s too cold for your pet, is a good thumb rule to keep in mind. When you see a dis­tressed dog or cat, bring them to a safe and warm place and call the New Brunswick SPCA hot­line at 1−877−722−1522,” said Porter.

If your dog is out­doors dur­ing the win­ter months, they must have access to prop­er shel­ter to allow them to stay warm as well as access to water. Under the NBSP­CA Code of Prac­tice for the Care of Dogs in New Brunswick, which can be found on our web­site states, ​“All dogs kept out­doors in win­ter for any peri­od longer than 30 min­utes must be pro­vid­ed with access to a weath­er-proof shel­ter which con­forms to the required stan­dards described in Sec­tion 1.1” (of the Code). ​“Dogs shall be kept in tem­per­a­tures as close as pos­si­ble to the com­fort zone of the breed, con­sid­er­ing age and health status.”

Pets can devel­op frost­bite and hypother­mia on cold win­ter days. Signs of dis­tress can be exces­sive shiv­er­ing, lift­ing paws or lick­ing and bit­ing them, refus­ing to play out­side. Pets can also show behav­ioral changes, such as act­ing dis­ori­ent­ed, con­fused, or dazed due to distress.

To keep your pet warm when it’s cold out­side, lim­it their out­door time, and thor­ough­ly dry feet, legs, and stom­ach when your pet comes in from snow. Keep an eye on sen­si­tive paw pads, which can be injured from snow, ice, and salt spread on side­walks. Pro­vide a warm, insu­lat­ed place to sleep, free from drafts. More impor­tant­ly, if your ani­mal is show­ing signs of dis­tress take it imme­di­ate­ly to a vet­eri­nar­i­an for treatment. 

If you sus­pect or wit­ness ani­mal cru­el­ty or neglect, please call the New Brunswick SPCA ²⁴⁄₇ hot­line at 1−877−722−1522. Thank you for doing your part to pro­tect and give these defence­less ani­mals a voice.

For more infor­ma­tion on keep­ing your pet safe dur­ing the win­ter or to learn more about the New Brunswick SPCA and its ini­tia­tives, please vis­it nbsp​ca​.ca.

About New Brunswick SPCA

Found­ed in 1881, New Brunswick SPCA (NBSC­PA) is the only province-wide orga­ni­za­tion man­dat­ed to enforce ani­mal pro­tec­tion laws. A ded­i­cat­ed team of 15 Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Offi­cers is vest­ed with the author­i­ty under the SPCA Act of New Brunswick to inves­ti­gate and, if nec­es­sary, lay charges, seize ani­mals, or rec­om­mend court orders to per­sons sus­pect­ed of abuse and cru­el­ty to animals. 

The NBSP­CA is a reg­is­tered char­i­ty that exists to pro­vide province-wide lead­er­ship in the humane treat­ment of ani­mals. We enforce rel­e­vant leg­is­la­tion, ensure shel­ter for neglect­ed or abused domes­ti­cat­ed ani­mals and agri­cul­tur­al ani­mals, and pro­vide pub­lic edu­ca­tion and advo­ca­cy to empow­er New Brunswick­ers to help ani­mals live long and healthy lives. 

To learn more vis­it www​.nbsp​ca​.ca

Media Con­tact:

Mir Hyder

Mar­ket­ing and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Manager

New Brunswick SPCA

mirh@​nbspca.​ca

Avail­able for Interview:

Tony Porter

Chief Ani­mal Pro­tec­tion Officer

New Brunswick SPCA