14 DAY TRIAL // A connection between vampires, werewolves and full moon has not been established yet. Still, British police has found one between full moon and small dirty businesses (like petty thefts) or violent crimes.
A new study has found that dogs and cats too are more exposed to injuries and illnesses during full moon than during other periods of the month, even if the reason for that is still not clearly known.
The team discovered that emergency room visits for these animals raise significantly during or near full moon. The researchers analyzed 11,940 cases at the Colorado State University Veterinary Medical Center and discovered the risk of emergency room visits to be 23 % higher for cats and 28 % higher for dogs on days coinciding to full moons; emergencies varied from cardiac arrest to trauma.
"If you talk to any person, from kennel help, nurse, front-desk person to doctor, you frequently hear the comment on a busy night, 'Gee is it a full moon?'. There is the belief that things are busier on full-moon nights." said lead researcher Raegan Wells of the university's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
Despite this, the team cannot point a clear cause for this.
"It is difficult to interpret the clinical significance of these findings," she said.
The mystery of the lunar connections led to an array of researches with baffling and mixed results. For example, a 2001 British research investigating an increased risk of animal bites to humans during full moons found a lunar connection, while a 2001 Australian investigation found none.
A stronger connection has been discovered between increased beach pollution and full moon, but this is easy to be put on real variations in tides linked to the lunar cycle. But connecting human and animal behavior to full moon is much more difficult; some just put it on a more active behavior related to brighter nights.