MUMBAI: Diwali is a festival of joy and happiness right? But how can it be a festival of joy when we really harm people around us. Not only elderly people in our society but also animals get really affected because of all the hazardous chemicals that the crackers let out.

Animals Matter To Me, an animal NGO committed to the welfare of all types of animals collaborated with Tonic Worldwide to compose therapeutic music specifically for dogs. The campaign TurnOnTheWoofer is also supported by Sony Mix and aims at providing dogs a musical relief this festive season. The music has been composed by Siddharth Basrur with a unique technology that helps dogs calm down during stressful situations.

This is the first time an NGO has taken such an action in India. While dog relaxing music is already available online, no such endeavour has been taken previously in India. It turns out that dogs are not very different from humans. Recent research shows that certain types of music encourage calmness more successfully than others do for dogs.

Animals Matter To Me Founder Ganesh Nayak said, “Diwali is the most difficult time of the year for dogs, pets as well as strays. I have seen them getting anxiety attacks and palpitations. They turn very restless and have no other option than to just bear the mental torture. So, when this idea came up, I truly believed it had merit in calming them down. We experimented the innovation with a few of our dogs and it worked wonderfully. Even some of the most hyperactive dogs became calm after listening to the music. We’ve started playing the music every day in our rehab centre and it has shown us great results.”

Tonic Worldwide chief strategy officer Unmisha Bhatt said, “We wanted to make sure no one felt left out this Diwali. While everyone talks about not about bursting crackers and having a safe Diwali, we all know that this process is going to take some time and cannot happen overnight. So, rather than asking people to take action, we took action ourselves and tried to create an impact.”

Tonic Worldwide creative director Ashwin Dutt said, “The idea was to create something that not just helps dogs during Diwali but also during other occasions. I’m an animal lover and I’ve seen dogs suffering from separation anxiety or situations such as bad weather. The music can also be used to calm down hyperactive dogs and whimpering puppies. Our enthusiastic team wanted to come up with a permanent solution and not just another social media campaign this festive season. We have also made the music freely available for pet owners so that this Diwali turns out to be a happy one for everyone.”

Click here to view the video: