LOS ANGELES, Dec. 30, 2025 - Welcoming the New Year often includes celebrating with fireworks, noisemakers and loud music, which can be frightening to our pets, and the yummy food and drinks that can be dangerous for our beloved pets. As we get ready to countdown to 2026, LA Animal Services offers the following pet safety tips:

• Keep your pet indoors. Many pets become scared and escape their homes during New Year’s Eve due to loud sounds from fireworks. The best way to keep your pets safe is to make sure they stay indoors and in an enclosed room, if possible.
  • If you allow your pet outside to go to the bathroom, be sure that your gate or fence are secure or that your pet stays on a leash. Loud noises from fireworks can be very scary and may cause a frightened dog to find the smallest opening in a fence and escape.
  • Even if your pet doesn’t seem obviously upset by fireworks, they can still cause burns or be harmful if accidentally ingested.
• Create a calming environment. While celebrating, it is easy to forget that sounds created by celebratory poppers or noisemakers can scare your four-legged friend. Creating a safe place in your home, like a room or crate with their favorite toy, will provide your pet a cozy and quiet space, if needed. You can also play soothing music and keep the room as quiet as possible by closing doors, windows and blinds.
  
• Keep alcohol and people food away from pets. Alcoholic beverages are very toxic to pets. Ensure alcoholic drinks and holiday foods are kept out of reach at all times. Dogs and cats can suffer very serious and sometimes fatal consequences from consuming too much rich and fatty foods, like yeast dough, chocolate, and from just plain overeating.
  
• Ensure your pet is licensed, microchipped, wearing a tag and has an up-to-date ID. If for any reason your pet becomes lost, ensuring they are wearing a collar, with a current LA City dog license and/or ID tag on them and a microchip that’s registered with your most up-to-date contact information, will help reunite you with your companion.If you need to have your pet microchipped, visit any of the six LA Animal Services Centers. The cost is $15 to microchip your pet.
   
• Look for your lost pet right away. Search your neighborhood and utilize social media, or provide temporary care for a lost pet via Shelter-at-Home.
  • Register your pet on Petco Love Lost, the free database powered by AI photo-matching technology that has reunited more than 100,000 lost pets with their families.
  • Post a photo of your lost dog or cat on LA City Lost and Found Pets, Nextdoor.com, or Pawboost.com, to improve the chances of reuniting with their companion animals. 
  • Provide temporary home care for lost or stray companion animals in their neighborhood through our Shelter-at-Home program. Shelter-at-Home expands LA Animal Services’ foster program and increases community involvement in helping animals find their owners while enabling pets to be held in less stressful environments. If a member of the community finds a lost pet, is unable to locate the owner, and is unable to provide temporary foster care, please call 888-452-7381 and make an appointment to bring the pet to the closest LA Animal Services Center. If the pet appears sick or injured, please bring him/her to the closest Animal Services Center immediately. DO NOT LEAVE the dog or cat in an unsafe place.

By keeping these safety precautions in mind, New Year’s Eve can be a fun and safe celebration for you and your four-legged family members as we welcome in 2026! 

From all of us at LA Animal Services, Happy New Year!

For more information on LA Animal Services, and tips on how to keep your pets safe, visit laanimalservices.com.