Year after year the RSPCA have campaigned for a stronger law to be enforced concerning the use of loud fireworks and bangers due to the effect they have on the common house pet and wildlife.
Earlier this year the Governments new fireworks regulations act was put into practice, but this still does very little to prevent animal distress. The law now states that fireworks must not be let off in public places between the hours of 11pm and 7am. But how will this help? The sale of fireworks in shops is now controlled, only allowing them to sell at certain times of the year. Again it will reduce the number of times the animals have to suffer, but they still have to relive the experience at some point.
Time after time, letter after letter and protest after protest the RSPCA have called for the maximum noise level of fireworks to be reduced to ninety five decibels, twenty five lower than its current level of one hundred and twenty decibels.
Animals Hear Differently
The campaign has been running for a mere two years, and as of yet very little has been done. It has been titled ‘Animals hear differently’, and the name speaks for itself. A dog’s sense of hearing is so sensitive it can probably hear every piece of dust falling on a carpeted floor, or snowflake falling to the ground outside. The sound of a passing car sounds like a pneumatic road drill to a dog. Can you imagine what a firework sounds like? Perhaps car engine ticking over, or somebody cutting a tree with a chainsaw. No! It sounds like a Jet Aircraft taking off a runway.
Stunning Skyrockets and the Law
The new fireworks legislation is now in force. It states that shops that distribute fireworks for public use may only sell them up to three weeks before bonfire night, the week separating Christmas from New Year, Chinese New year and Diwali Night. To sell at any other time a license must be obtained. This is all well but this does not make any attempt to reduce animal distress.
Members of the public are free to purchase anything up to a class three firework, which is one hundred and twenty five decibels. This sort of racket is so terrifying to an animal, that they may run away, maybe get lost, slip under the wheel of a car, severely injure itself or maybe even die. Next time you go to let off a rocket, stop and think, how could you live with the fact that you may have driven a poor cat to its horrific and painful death.
Dog of Death
In November, Billy, a four year old German shepherd from Sussex, was awoken with the sound of crackling fireworks. As he tried to run from the horrific noise of the crazy can of chemicals lighting up the midnight sky he managed to run into a line of tragic events. Four young boys confronted him, and petrified him by tying a firework to his face, and setting the fuse alight. This traumatising, vicious and evil attack has left Billy dangling on his last string of life.
If that first firework had not been let off, this whole experience could have been avoided.
Last year the RSPCA received more than one hundred phone calls from concerned members of the public about animals affected by the use of loud fireworks.
It is not just the common house pet that is affected, but also the wildlife. Last year the bangers created a prickly problem for our hedgehogs, as many were found outside in the open, flat on the road
