The Effect of the Full Moon on Pets

Does the full moon affect your pets? Research does seem to be somewhat contradictory about this topic, but perhaps like us, some pets are affected by the cycles of the moon, whilst others are not. My pet cat and rabbit seem unaffected but I have a friend who keeps chickens and he says they lay more in the last quarter of the moon.

Extracts from some books on pagan law and the moon, mention the Hare Moon of April waxing full and the rabbits playing, leaping carefree in their mating and jubilant in their games. Also mentioned is the Wolf Moon, in deepest winter, when the wolves, driven with hunger would howl and come closer than usual to the villages of ancestors, and from time to time, kill a human to survive.

Two years research at an accident and emergency department in a general hospital in the UK, showed that more patients were seen at the time of a full moon, after being bitten by their pet dog or cat. The findings indicated that the chances of being bitten were twice as high near the time of the full moon.

Yet a years research in Sydney Australia found no links between people admitted to hospital with dog bites and the full moon. In fact admission rates were lower at these times. However a vet also in Sydney observed an increase in cows having calves at the time of a full moon.

A large study conducted over eleven years, in a veterinary facility in the USA, with more than twelve thousand cats and dogs, found that cats visits to the emergency room were up by twenty three percent and dogs by twenty eight percent.

Despite these findings the study leader said that it was difficult to deduce the clinical implication of these findings. One possible reason put forward for the significant increase in cat injuries at the time of a full moon is the increased lunar luminosity, which might make the cat keener to hunt at night.

Something else worth bearing in mind is that although the increase in vet visits appears disturbing, in real terms, it only compared on average to one extra cat or dog visit to the vet throughout the pertinent period.

Learn more about this author, ROSEMARIE GLANVILLE.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about The effect of the full moon on pets?
We want to hear your view. Write now!