December 15, 2006
69News
WFMZ-TV Online - Allentown, PA
While it left some people shaken up for a few seconds, the situation seemed to be a little more hairy for pets. WFMZ'S Melissa Batulis explains why.
BRUCE: "All day was just not herself. She was staying very close to her crate and stayed right on the bed for the most part of the day."
REPORTER: That kind of subdued behavior was pretty unusual for BRUCE Crabbs' one-year-old golden retriever, "Sydney."
BRUCE: "She usually follows me around throughout the house and yesterday she just wasn't quite right."
REPORTER: But then BRUCE heard what he described as loud thunder at his home in Lower Heidelberg Township. Once he found out it was an earthquake, "Sydney's" behavior began to make sense.
BRUCE: "During the earthquake I came right downstairs afterward and she had gotten up and went in her crate which she considers her safe haven or refuge."
STAND UP: "Sydney" wasn't the only four- footed seismograph. A lot of you wrote to us to say your animals were acting weird during the earthquake. So we came here to the VCA Animal Hospital to find out why.
BASTIAN: "If they start acting weird you might just want to pay attention."
REPORTER: Dr. Ann Bastian says they get a lot of calls about animals sensing weather phenomenon, the most common being thunderstorms.
BASTIAN: "We're not sure exactly why the animals pick up on the earthquakes. We don't know if they're hearing low frequency vibrations from the earth, whether they're feeling shifts in the magnetic fields of the earth."
REPORTER: What Dr. Bastian does know is that your pets have a lot more heightened senses that aren't fully understood yet. That's something some pet owners are willing to trust.
BRUCE: "I think that will be in the back of my mind, wondering what's going on if she's not herself from now on."
REPORTER: In Lower Heidelberg Township, Melissa Batulis, 69 News Berks Edition.
http://wfmz.com/view/?id=36329