HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Many Waipahu residents reported hearing and seeing dozens of illegal fireworks on Dec. 28. Honolulu Police arrested one man in the area for firework-related offenses. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news As New Year's Eve approaches, many are urging people who set off the fireworks on the days leading up to holidays to stop, because they're seeing an uptick in pets being killed. As the fireworks went off Saturday night, pet assistance groups received multiple calls of animals running away. Pet owners urged to prep now for NYE fireworks "It's pretty bad," said Chantell Moniz, founder of Hina's Legacy and a Waianae resident. "I get calls daily with messages and pictures of dead animals, and animals running all over the place." She said the fireworks on the Waianae coast have been bad since October. "Just the other day there was a dog scared so much of the fireworks that it ran onto the freeway and died because a Jeep hit it because you don't expect to see a dog loose on the freeway," she added. Experts said dogs have extremely sensitive hearing and fireworks can trigger their fight or flight response. The animal rescue groups said the animals are being found island-wide. One group said three dogs were found dead on Saturday; one in Hauula, one in Kapolei and the other in Ewa. They said the owners told them they escaped after hearing the sound of fireworks. "Every 15 to 20 minutes, my phone is going off about a lost pet who got out, is missing or the worst ones are, 'hey, we found them, and it's not the result we want," explained Nick Brown who is part of the Paw Posse Ohana Facebook page. She and others respond to missing pet calls and posts. She has a microchip reader and tries to successfully reunite pets with their owners but sometimes has to make a difficult phone call. ‘Dream come true for our family,’ Lahaina survivors reunited with island home "It's not what I want to do day to day, to have to call a family and tell them I found their dog or, you know, please claim them over here, because there's really not much left of them," she added. On New Year's Day, she said there were about 150 animals on Oahu who had escaped from home due to fireworks, and more than half were found dead. Both women said it's not the fireworks that bother them, it's the fireworks going off daily leading up to New Year's or the 4th of July. "Animals are killing themselves, biting through their kennels, cutting themselves up, dogs are going through glass doors, I mean how do you secure them unless you're home to comfort them 24/7?" Moniz said. Both said people secure their pets inside safely on New Year's Eve and July 4, but pet owners can't be home 24 hours a day waiting to see if fireworks will be going off or not. "Tradition is tradition, but when you do it outside of tradition, it's not a tradition anymore it doesn't mean anything," Moniz added. They argue fireworks are getting worse every single year. "How do you prepare for it for a whole entire month?" Brown asked. "We're asking please, you know, help us by just, just save the fireworks for New Year's Eve." Check out more news from around Hawaii Both said they would like to see more enforcement and more people held responsible for illegal fireworks.