Winter Tips

There are also a few things to keep in mind for our animal friends. The Susy Utzinger Animal Welfare Foundation has some practical tips ready.

Anyone who fetches wood for the fireplace often brings a peacefully sleeping bat into the house with them. Unfortunately, the little fluttering creatures usually don't have enough time to wake up from their hibernation before the piece of wood is thrown into the fire. "So our cozy warm fire source becomes a cruel grave for them," explains Susy Utzinger, executive director of the foundation and animal expert. Therefore, the first winter tip: check firewood for sleeping bats!

For cats, winter strolls can become life-threatening if oxygen holes in garden ponds and biotopes are not marked and the animals break into the ice. From it follows winter tip No. 2 for animal friends: Oxygen holes with exit possibilities equip (wood slat or branch).

How Bello and Co. cope with the cold

Most dogs take the cold much more easily than we do. Some four-legged friends even love to eat the white splendor and consume huge amounts of snow. But watch out: they often pay for this with gastrointestinal inflammation and sore throats. The cold is also unhealthy for dogs if they cannot move. Therefore, very important tip No. 3: Do not tie dogs outside in winter and do not let them wait long in the parked vehicle.

Important!

Now that winter temperatures prevail, cats may seek refuge in engine compartments and wheel wells of cars. Winter tip No. 4: please tap the hood a few times before you want to drive off.

Winter tip no. 5

Even small animal cages deposited on the balcony become a real refrigerator for their inhabitants, because concrete floor conducts cold! So that guinea pigs and rabbits feel well also with minus temperatures outside, isolated shelters, wind protection and much movement area are compellingly necessary.

More tips about animals and everything about the work of the foundation can be found at www.susyutzinger.ch.