To ask people having fireworks this weekend to employ some common sense?

[Frillyhorseyknickers]

If you're having fireworks, and you live near horses or any sort of livestock, please have the forthought to go round and tell them your plans, so they can take steps to protect their animals, horses in particular are flight animals.

My friend's horse was badly injured this week as no one thought to let them know theneighbours were having fireworks.

www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/horse-left-badly-injured-leaps-702824

Please also think about how mindlessly stupid it is to send burning flames up into the sky (fireworks, Chinese lanterns) as they end up setting fire to straw stacks, livestock buildings etc etc.

Like the majority of people I like all the annual traditions including bonfire night.We've been sortin stuff to burn and building the bonfire for weeks. You can't ban fireworks just because of a few idiots and whiny horeseowners

"Category 3 ("display") fireworks must be safely viewable from 25 metres away, and must scatter no debris beyond a 20-metre range."

I find it astonishing how no license is required in the UK for members of the public to let of fireworks especially category 3 fireworks.

A few years back on New Years Eve my drunk neighbours decided that it was OK to let of Category 3 fireworks in my tiny London garden. Granted my garden was marginally longer than theirs. I lived in a built up area with houses close to each other.

In doing so they set set fire to my garden shed. Shortly after midnight I found one of them on top of my shed attempting to put out the fire with buckets of water. They had no idea if there was anything flammable inside. I had to call the fire brigade to put out the fire. The shed and it contents had to be replaced on my insurance . I received no apology from those involved .
They ruined New years eve for my family and not just for that year. One of my children is autistic.
The police did not want to get involved as it did not happen in public but on private property. I got a similar response from my local council.

You can't legally drive a car if you are drunk but no problem with handling explosives and causes distress to countless others.

The thing is Edmund we all have things in life that we'd rather were different. For me it's cats. I like wildlife, esp wild birds, and I don't much like cats and I certainly hate the damage they do (and the cat shit in my garden is vile too). So from my point if view, I'd be happy if cat ownership was outlawed over the next 20 years (all existing cats to live out their lifespan but no more breeding kittens). I could probably find quote a few people who agree with me, and quite a few more who don't much care either way. Does that make my "proposal " acceptable given how many people love cats?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bonfire-night-firework-display-idiotic-11449758

@barbarianmum ot but what a wonderful law that would be! down with cat shit!

Yes because cat shit and explosives being on sale to the general public are the same thing.

I don't much like cats and I certainly hate the damage they do

You can't ban living creatures from existing because you don't like them. As for the damage they do, well if we're taking that line, the human race is in deep shit, can we ban ourselves? Fireworks have zero purpose in the world around us, at least you can argue cats have a place in the natural order of things.

How awful to write off a tradition with major historical importance because you don't like noise. Miserable

It's not just bonfire night, that's the biggest issue.

We have animals who are frightened by fireworks. We sedate them on bonfire night and the closest Saturday to bonfire night. It would be irresponsible and dangerous to sedate them from Halloween until the mid November, which is how long fireworks regularly go off for.

Anyone who likes setting off explosives in their garden would change their minds if they saw, first hand, the effect this has on some animals. It's heartbreaking and as owners, there is very little we can do to ease their distress due to the length of time they go on for.

And it's not just animals, there are people who are suffering. PTSD survivors, people with Aspergers or Autism. All for a few loud bangs and some pretty lights And when silent fireworks are readily available to anyone with an internet connection, it's just selfish and unnecessary.

How awful to write off a tradition with major historical importance because you don't like noise. Miserable

Well, the tradition with major historical importance is pretty hideous, isn't it? However, I think the majority of posters here who are complaining are complaining about the unregulated availability of fireworks to members of the general public and the number of days on which fireworks are now unpredictably let off. Nobody is really suggesting doing away with Bonfire Night, as far as I can see.

How awful to write off a tradition with major historical importance because you don't like noise. Miserable

It's not just noise, and yes miserable - perhaps you can actually put yourself in someone else's shoes. Though better miserable than distressed without a way to be calmed.

'Tradition with major historical importance', good lord Nigel, is that you? Celebrating burning someone to death (not even the ringleader) hundreds of years after the event is not something to be proud of! If the French did similar for burning Joan of Arc to death, we'd think them mad as well, and rather sadistic/medieval.

Cats are not "a natural part of things" in the UK, that would be the British Wildcat. And the large number of domestic cats we keep do in fact mean that lots of other natural things don't exist, or exist in smaller numbers, or are faced by extinction. So you could draw up quite a ligical argument for cats in the middle east but not the UK if you were so minded- and we're back to judging whose likes and dislikes should trump others.

Cats are not "a natural part of things" in the UK, that would be the British Wildcat. And the large number of domestic cats we keep do in fact mean that lots of other natural things don't exist, or exist in smaller numbers, or are faced by extinction

Um, that's not true.

ww2.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/cats-and-garden-birds/are-cats-causing-bird-declines

You say 'we keep ', so it's actually humans that have caused the problems, as they have by creating fireworks.

Um I work in nature conservation and yes, whilst cats are not solely responsible for the nationwide extinction of species (changes in land use and habitat fragmentation are bigger problems) they a certainly a major contributor on a local scale. So, for example, the success for breeding skylark on one if my sites dropped by over 50% this year thanks to a new housing estate next door. This part of the reserve is shut to people and dogs but of course cats get in. So the ground nesters are sitting ducks targets. A couple more years like this and that'll be 1 less site for skylark which are already under threat.

But the point remains, do I get to say "no cats" because I prefer birds?

The problem is that you can't plan for fireworks when they're going off randomly over a period of at least 2 weeks.

I had a dog once that needed sedating for fireworks (he came terrified of them as an adult rescue and the vet was worried he might actually manage to get stressed enough to have heart issues as he got older)

It worked fine, give him drugs before it got dark on the fifth and they'd be finished by the time he came to.

You can't do that when it's weeks at a time and when people suddenly decide 11 o'clock at night is time to set them off.

Edmund

You said
"Either you have hearing issues or are lucky to live somewhere where they both are far away from your home and only happen a very few nights a year."

No hearing issues thanks. As I said in the post you quoted, and the one previous, they do not only happen 'very few nights a year' they happen weekly, sometimes more. They are not as close as my neighbours garden, which would be very loud (do your neighbours really set of fireworks several nights a week? If so of complain to the council) but they are not that far away, and in my old house they were only one street away, and still really not that bad.

I'm sorry your neighbours are antisocial pyrotechnic loving assholes, but please don't froth at me, for not being bothered by my towns regular displays.

ToastyFingers but that is exactly my point, yours are far away enough that that barely register more than 'a dog barking' type annoyance. My situation is hardly abnormal - what exactly do you expect the council to do about it? There are no powers to stop my neighbours setting them off every evening, just like they can't do anything about my neighbour blasting the same Ed Sheeran cd throughout the day with all their windows open. Having unlimited access (and seemingly money) to fireworks means that in areas such as mine (built up diverse area with everyone with something to celebrate) fireworks are more than just a bit annoying. I'd give the biggest lover of fireworks a week before they had enough. It's not an uncommon issue either.

You can't ban fireworks just because of a few idiots and whiny horeseowners

Oh yes how dare people care about animals
How about animals that then swallow the stupid lanterns?
Or peoples pets that are terrified?
Or the kids that set of fireworks in peoples gardens and in bins?'
Or a makeshift fire in a local park?
Completely agree with edmund that its ok for some of you because its too far away to bother you, but for some of us its an actual nuisance, and some of us actually care about things that don't affect us.

When cats start exploding with loud bangs and setting fire when they land I'll come and help you campaign for controlled displays of those too.

No one is saying ban Bonfire night, stop waving your (highly seasonable) straw men around. All anyone here is saying is that it should be licenced displays only and limited to specific dates.

There is no legal recourse if the twat next door to you sets off grade 3 fireworks in his six foot square yard and causes damage - a dented car and a fire so far, so I checked on this - and they crash against windows and roofs so more damage inevitable. It can't be proved whose firework was whose and happened on private property so twat could cost you hundreds of pounds.

But he likes his sparkly lights and bangs bless his little cottons, and doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone but himself. Lovely human being that he is.

I have never once suggested fireworks should be banned, although I would support their sale to the general public being limited to public displays and a licensing of some description.

The original article I linked to would not have happened had the neighbours notified the yard of their intention. We're in rural Lincolnshire, no one was anticipating that bonfire celebrations would begin a full seven days before bonfire night - that IMO is wholly unreasonable.

I hate the inverse snobbery which is widely accepted on this forum but I'm not being goaded into some lifestyle debate. I work hard to afford my horses and it is an offence to knowingly cause suffering to animals under the welfare Act. It is inexcusable to do so under the guise of ignorance, entertainment or tradition so the people peddling that line out really do need to wind their necks in.

With the amount of complete nutcases about I am very much certain that fireworks' days are numbered in terms of their unregulated sale.

Fully support what you’re saying OP. Ours are used to shooting and a crow scarer going off so when I went up this eve none of them were bothered. They’re all out tonight and coming in tomorrow so I hope it’ll be similarly ok. We live high up in hills so there’s nothing here or behind us - just in the village and closest town (10 miles away) below which you can see from our yard.

But having scared animals does kind of change your outlook on fireworks. We still watch them out the window with DD but wouldn’t want to support any private displays..

“Love this idea that a few wealthy horse owners can dictate that no one has fireworks.”

I wouldn’t be close to wealthy if I didn’t have mine but having him pretty much wipes out any money for much beyond essentials. Most horse owners are the opposite of wealthy because if they hurt themselves (e.g. they try to jump a gate to escape a firework) it costs a fucking fortune to fix them.