This is a moan. Although, I think a lot of people would sympathise. Some foxes used to live about three houses down from me. They used to travel along a right of way behind my house. I fed them. I did it surreptitiously in case my neighbours thought I was doing something wrong. That’s the level of ignorance there is in the world. Of course I was doing something right and caring. But this is the season for fireworks. About two days ago fireworks were set off by my close neighbours. I think it was in a garden one removed from where these foxes live. They live in an unkempt unused garden because the bloke who owes the house is one of those sorts of people.
- Too many dogs are anxious and fearful
- British public turn against firework displays because of their companion animals, antisocial behaviour and military veterans
In any case, the foxes have gone and I love the guys. The food that I have put out has not been eaten so I’m going to presume that they’ve been scared away by the very loud noises. It isn’t just domestic animals that are scared of fireworks, wildlife is too. Fireworks make incredibly frightening noises and they don’t understand what’s going on. At least humans can rationalise it and understand what’s going on but fireworks are still incredibly irritating to a lot of people.
And a lot of people have pets. When they see their companion dogs and cats becoming so terrified it upset them as well. I spend quite a lot of my time trying to calm my cat down. I don’t want him to run out of the house and do something stupid. I don’t think he will but it’s a concern and it’s all because selfish people set off fireworks.
I know that they have a right to do it because the government allows it but just one family on a large housing estate setting off fireworks affects thousands of other people and hundreds of cats and dogs. So you have a situation in which perhaps two people are enjoying their fireworks yet hundreds of people are being annoyed by them while potentially hundreds of companion animals are being made anxious and worse. Surely this is selfishness behavior?
It is not illegal to set off fireworks unless it is outside the generous time limits but it is immoral I would argue. My main concern is cats and dogs. I’ve not lived with a cat who’s not been upset by fireworks. It does vary from cat to cat, obviously, but they’ve all been anxious because of them. They can’t understand what’s happening. And as an aside, the burnt out fireworks are dangerous is nibbled by a dog for example.
Another problem is that the coronavirus pandemic has caused public displays to be cancelled. No doubt there will be more ad hoc back garden fireworks displays which means more irritation for people and anxiety for their pets.
Even before the pandemic there were calls for limitations on fireworks to be set off in backyards. There should be more public displays in any event so that the whole process is better controlled. These ad hoc firework displays go on for six weeks sometimes. This is partly because there are several celebrations which require fireworks such as the Indian Diwali, Halloween, Bonfire Night in the UK and so on. It’s gone too far but the government in the UK is incapable of controlling this sort of thing. They aren’t interested in the first place and it is such a low priority that it will never happen. So in the meantime my cat and the foxes will have to be terrified. Thanks a lot guys, you selfish lot of firework users.
