Holiday Foods Dangerous to Pets

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, and summer cookout foods that send thousands of pets to emergency vets each year.

Compiled by PlainPetFood · August 29, 2026

Dogs & cats ratings: 320
Acutely toxic: 30
Unsafe: 68
Safe: 86

PlainPetFood Published August 9, 2026

Archive verdict for this guide

For dogs and cats pooled, 30 of 320 ratings are acutely toxic (9%), 31% are unsafe or toxic, and Sweets & Desserts is the densest hazard category at 77.8%.

30
Toxic: 68
Unsafe: 136
Caution: 86
Safe

Counts are live SQL over food_safety (dogs and cats pooled). Dataset vintage: August 2026.

Percent of dogs and cats pooled ratings marked unsafe or toxic in each category (minimum 4 foods). This chart is the guide's topic signature: the same rows you will open from the food pages linked below.

Thanksgiving Hazards

Turkey bones (cooked — always dangerous), onion and garlic in stuffing and gravy, rich fatty skin and trimmings (pancreatitis), raisin-containing dishes, and sweet potato casserole with marshmallows (sugar, nutmeg).

Halloween Dangers

Chocolate (theobromine), xylitol in sugar-free candy, raisins, and candy wrappers (obstruction). The week of Halloween is the busiest for animal poison control.

Summer BBQ Risks

Corn cobs (intestinal obstruction — one of the top ER surgeries in summer), grapes, guacamole (avocado + garlic + onion), alcohol in drinks, cooked bones, and foods with onion powder.

If your pet ate something dangerous

Call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center: 888-426-4435 (24/7, consultation fee may apply) or your nearest emergency veterinary clinic immediately.

See also methodology, dog foods, tools, and about.

PlainPetFood publishes an editorial food-safety compilation. When the FDA or ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center names a food as dangerous, that food's page links the source; other ratings are identified as editorial guidance. Guide KPIs and category hazard bars are computed live from food_safety for the guide's species scope. Section prose is editorial; no hazard percentage is typed by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, report a correction, the methodology behind these numbers, or contact the editorial team. Data current as of August 29, 2026.