The Fourth of July is always a fun holiday to celebrate. The cookouts and pool parties are always a hit and let’s not forget about those spectacular fireworks. Who doesn’t love a good firework display on Independence Day? The answer is actually animals that are easily spooked by the loud noises and bright lights.

Horses have a fight or flight response. For them, it's heightened more than other animals, and when their adrenaline gets going, they lose the ability to think. They try to run, breakthrough fencing, injure themselves in wooded areas, among other things.

“Two of our geriatric horses went crazy last year,” said Deborah Bell-Devlin, owner of Don’t Forget Us, Pet Us Sanctuary. “My blind cow was running around in circles, and I only have two hands to tend to all of these animals at once.”

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Bell-Devlin mentioned that Smart Pak donated calming supplements to help provide some relief for the animals that are strongly affected by thunderstorms and fireworks. These supplements will be utilized over the holiday weekend, but it is unknown just how much help they will be when the time comes.

“It would be great to have a second set of hands to help just in case we get to that point and I don’t have to scramble,” said Bell-Devlin. “This is going to start happening and I need to prepare to have an extra set of hands.”

Bell-Devlin turned to a community Facebook page to request a few volunteers be on standby should the need for recruits arise. More than 20 individuals answered the call to comfort these animals when needed.

“These people are giving up their fireworks to be there for the animals,” said Bell-Devlin. “Our community is just so wonderful.”

Bell-Devlin will task these volunteers with feeding and petting the animals in order to allow for her to tend to the horses that are particularly bothered by the show.

“It could be Friday at 8:15, all of Saturday night, or just Sunday night,” said Bell-Devlin. “We just don’t really know, but I have an arsenal of people to call if that comes up.”
Bell-Devlin is preparing for any fireworks that will go off within a half-mile radius of the Faunce Corner High Hill Road Area.

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