by | Oct 23, 2025
Halloween can be a scary, stressful time for Iowans’ pets, with doorbells ringing, strange noises, and costumed kids darting through in the yard.
Megan Matamoros, director of shelter operations at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, offers a few tips to keep your dogs and cats comfy and safe during this spooky season.
“Make sure that you are paying attention to where your animal is, so when we’re opening and closing doors, we’re making sure our pets don’t go out and greet the trick-or-treaters,” Matamoros says. “They can be left in your room with the door shut, like your main bedroom, or maybe in a crate where they sleep with some light radio on, or a TV to kind of create a white noise thing.”
Some pets may appear to like Halloween candy as much as kids, but many sweet treats can be harmful and even poisonous to dogs and cats. Matamoros says it’s important to take precautions with the candy you’ll be passing out, and with the bags of edible loot kids bring home.
“Candy should absolutely be left out of reach. Dogs and cats and all animals should not be getting human candy, so keeping them in an enclosed pet-proof container before you’re giving them out to trick-or-treaters is great,” Matamoros says. “If you do have a bowl, make sure you keep that high enough where your cat or your dog cannot reach it and cannot jump up and get into it.”
If your pet eats something it’s not supposed to, contact your veterinarian or emergency vet immediately, or call the ASPCA’s Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435.
Halloween decorations inside and outside the house can also pose a threat to a pet, so don’t let them get access to chew on light bulbs, inflatables, or anything else with a battery pack.
“Those fake spider webs are really cool and make it a really spooky house, but if it is within the pet’s reach or they’re really interested in it, they can get entangled in those fake webs,” Matamoros says, “so you want to make sure that those are very secure and that your animals aren’t interacting with them.”
She urges pet owners to make sure their animals are equipped with an I-D tag and a microchip with your updated information to give them the best chance of being reunited with you if they manage to scamper away.
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