Pets scared by July 4th fireworks kept Las Vegas animal organizations busy

While Fourth of July fireworks sent many anxious pets running and hiding, local shelters and volunteer search and rescue organizations spent the holiday keeping some of those animals calm, getting them to safety and reuniting them with their rightful owners.

Over 100 dogs were taken in at The Animal Foundation, Clark County’s animal shelter, on Thursday and Friday. Another 25 dogs were rounded up Friday by Paws Patrol, an animal search-and-rescue organization.

“Last night, towards the late night, it started picking up. We recovered a handful of dogs last night,” said Joey Simpson, a field patrol volunteer for Paws Patrol, a nonprofit focused on searching, rescuing and securing lost animals.

The organization works to recover animals by seeking them out, scanning them for microchips and attempting to reunite them with their families. Occasionally, the dogs the group is searching for are dead by the time they’re found, but even in those situations, volunteers still scan the dogs for a microchip in the hope of providing closure to owners, Simpson said.

Simpson said Paws Patrol can get 10 to 15 calls a day about lost dogs, but the Friday numbers were higher because of the holiday. Dogs also like to hide from the loud noises and the heat, which makes finding them more difficult for the team.

“We’re not going to give up until we either find a dog breathing, or we find, unfortunately, a dog deceased,” Simpson said.

The patrol team received an influx of calls Friday, and were working on 20 to 25 cases of missing dogs.

The Animal Foundation said it received 63 dogs Thursday, and 67 Friday as of 4 p.m.

During the fireworks Thursday night, staff members at the foundation sat with the dogs and other shelter animals to help keep them calm during the shows, said communications manager Kelsey Pizzi. The fireworks can be stressful for animals all week long, she said.

“Every shelter dog got a toy with Adaptil Calming Spray, a KONG filled with peanut butter, and a paper bag with kibble. Extra stressed and anxious dogs received a Kong Wobbler. Cats received a toy with Feliway Calming Spray, and small mammals got a paper bag with hay,” Pizzi wrote in a statement.

City of Henderson Animal Care and Control, Henderson’s shelter, did not have a number of how many dogs had been surrendered during the celebrations. The Nevada SPCA received six or seven dogs, but could not take them and instead referred them to The Animal Foundation.

Contact Ella Thompson at ethompson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @elladeethompson on X.