Halloween can be lots of fun, but some of the candy can be hard on a person's stomach. We know not to give out apples or any unwrapped food. If you are going out or your children are, be sure to check what you bring home. Don't forget your pets. Do not give chocolate or any candy really to pets. I can't think of any of the Halloween stuff that would be good for a pet. One way to be sure the dog doesn't get into the sweets is to put it up high so he or she can only gaze at it. If your dog or cat does get into anything, call the vet for instructions.

I check many organizations for pet information and this is from PETA, but it is for people, not pets. The organization gives a list of treats that do not have any animal products in them for kids to enjoy.

"Candy: Airheads taffy, Atkins peanut butter bars, Blow Pops, Brach's Cinnamon Hard Candy, Charms lollipops, Chick-o-Sticks, Cracker Jack, Cry Babies, Dem Bones, Dots, Dum-Dums, Fireballs, Goldenberg's Peanut Chews , Hubba Bubba bubblegum, Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy), Jujubees, Jujyfruits, Lemonheads, Mambas, Mary Janes (regular and peanut butter kisses), Now and Later, Pez, Ring Pop lollipops, Smarties (U.S. Brand), Sour Patch Kids, Super Bubble, Swedish Fish, Sweet Tarts, Tropical Source mini chocolate bags, Twizzlers, and Zotz."

By the time your finished reading this column, you will possibly wish you hadn't, but I don't know any other way to alert you to what is in a lot of our food. So...from PETA's website:

"Gelatin is a protein made by boiling cows' and pigs' skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones...Lard is...Fat from hog abdomens....Pepsin — If the thought of eating lard turns your stomach, stay away from pepsin, a clotting agent from pigs' stomachs, used in some cheeses and vitamins....Rennet — Certain words just make you cringe, like coagulate, congeal, clot — which is what rennet, an enzyme taken from baby calves' stomachs, is used for in cheese production....Urea comes from urine and other "bodily fluids." It's used to "brown" baked goods, like pretzels."

Now I don't automatically take everything I read from animal rights groups as law, anymore than I believe what any news media or group or person tells me. I am glad that lard is hardly ever used in home baking anymore.

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Finally from PETA news is an article about bears being kept captive in roadside zoos. I thought those things were long gone. Cherokee Indians are running these terrible places in North Carolina. The USDA has cited the following zoos, so why aren't they closed? The reason is we, the public, haven't screamed enough.

"Three roadside zoos — Cherokee Bear Zoo, Chief Saunooke Bear Park, and Santa's Land — keep bears in grossly inhumane conditions. As though locked in a 1950s time warp, these Cherokee facilities display neurotic, hungry bears in desolate concrete pits or cramped cages in which the animals pace back and forth, walk in endless circles, cry and whimper, and beg tourists to toss them a morsel of food."

Here is who to write to: Principal Chief Michell Hicks, The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, P.O. Box 455, Cherokee, NC 28719, 828-497-7000.

Thank you.