For the past five years Halloween has been a very stressful time for our golden retriever Jaspar.

This year was the worst due to three weeks of fire crackers blasting day and night.

Three days before Halloween we left him inside with the radio talking away but he was frightened from firecrackers to the point of panic. Trying to get out of the house he chewed two feet off of a door frame and part of the door.

The day of Halloween we put him outside when we went out for a few hours. Again, scared, he bit through a metal mesh fence, through a hedge and under another fence. After running east for who knows how far, someone captured him and took him to the Como Lake Veterinarian, who called me to come pick up a very upset boy.

Two days later with things calming down I took Jaspar outside to fetch the ball for some treats, which usually lasts for a few minutes.

Bang! And off he went again. I drove all the streets looking for him with no luck. I decided to go home and see if another call for him would come in.

It did. A resident west of us corralled him and called the Animal Rescue Centre, which called me.

I really would like to thank these helpful people who saved Jaspar and let us get back to "normal" with Jaspar.

He has lost three teeth trying to chew his way out when frightened by firecrackers.

The cruelty to animals caused by firecrackers every year is criminal.

I personally would like them to be restricted to Halloween night only. The same goes for New Year's Eve.

A society that fails to recognize this problem and doesn't try to stop this cruelty to animals is letting down innocent victims year after year.

I know there are good people out there who care and I thank them so much.

Now we need more people to care enough to make strict guidelines for the use of firecrackers.

Steve Mancinelli Coquitlam