So sick of the constant stupid fireworks

[MrsKeats]

When will they hurry up and ban fireworks for private sale?
Have 2 dogs shivering under the sofa. Huge bangs outside. What if you have a baby in bed?
Anti social behaviour if you ask me.
Take your kids to a proper display.

Started up here again just after the sun went down and we're now once again being bombarded by loud booming ones from an assortment of nearby houses. I'm so fucking fed up of hearing them every few bloody minutes!

If anyone is struggling to believe dogs can't cope and this is a serious issue...

Every year I am contacted by owners, their dogs have had fits triggered by fireworks, some peoples dogs have died through the stress triggering heart attacks (And that is not just old dogs).

Let me tell you about the springer spaniel who despite sedatives, curtains closed, music up, snug jumper on, big carby meal - smashed through a window in a frantic bid to escape the fireworks.

The owners management had got her through the first few days of fireworks season but by day 4 she was out of her mind as soon as darkness fell. One loud screamy rocket that ended in a huge echoing boom and she smashed through a single glazed pane, out into the garden and under the shed. She had bled out from her wounds by the time they dragged her body out from under there. Her nails were ripped out from her frantic digging.

This wasn't a rescue dog who had previous bad experience, this was a former gundog, properly trained to loud noises, who, due to firework noise gradually became more and more sensitive to sounds, forcing her early retirement from gundog work. Each year despite the owners putting in all the work they possibly could, the erratic, unpredictable nature of fireworks would set that work right back, each year she'd get a little bit worse.

Fireworks aren't just making it hard for some dogs to relax and sleep, or causing some dogs to have a bit of a woof at them.

Fireworks are causing some animals absolute sheer terror, to the point they will injure themselves, to the point where they will in some cases, die.

Come back and say it's not a big deal when you've experienced a member of your family be subjected to night after night of abject terror, fear from which there IS no escape, with no way to tell them they are safe or it will end soon. No way at all to alleviate their distress.

Some humans experience this level of fear too - typically the ones that everyone makes a big fuss of at other times, the elderly, those suffering extreme mental health problems, our military Heroes.

#bekind - but only if it doesn't stop you enjoying yourself eh?

We don't have fireworks at home, but your OP is a bit snipey. My toddler slept through it all last night, I'm not a fan of dogs but I don't try and ban them, dogs can also be a noise nuisance and dangerous so I think the comparison is fair. I don't like dogs I don't have one, I'm still affected by other people's, I don't like the concept of fireworks at home but other people do, I'm not going to call for the ban of everything that I dislike.

No one is calling for a ban (for the tenth time!). Just a compromise which I think is fair and sensible. And yes, you might dislike dogs (as several people have said too) but you not liking dogs is not resulting in any fatalities of animals or people (also for the tenth time). It’s really sad that people can read a story like the one @WiddlinDiddlin poster above and then just post to say that they don’t like dogs and that we shouldn’t ban fireworks. Where’s the empathy?

@etulosba

l get that everyone likes different things but, honestly, to enjoy fireworks that make such a loud bang it echoes and rattles windows I find very strange.

It doesn’t really what you find strange. There is no question that a great many people do enjoy loud bangs.

Well I do find it strange that anyone would like the sound of a bomb going off and yes that is what they sound like.

Even more depressing is the fact that they enjoy that noise even though they know that many many people, children and animals are distressed at best by fireworks and badly injured or killed at worst.

@Notahandmaid

No one is calling for a ban (for the tenth time!). Just a compromise which I think is fair and sensible. And yes, you might dislike dogs (as several people have said too) but you not liking dogs is not resulting in any fatalities of animals or people (also for the tenth time). It’s really sad that people can read a story like the one *@WiddlinDiddlin* poster above and then just post to say that they don’t like dogs and that we shouldn’t ban fireworks. Where’s the empathy?

One of the problems is, and not just on this thread, that so many people don't bother reading the posts. They just jump in with their opinion which, of course, is always right.

I find that the most annoying and depressing thing about mumsnet. How hard is it to actually read the posts? Also how can you make a valid point if you haven't?

@JurgensCakeBaby

We don't have fireworks at home, but your OP is a bit snipey. My toddler slept through it all last night, I'm not a fan of dogs but I don't try and ban them, dogs can also be a noise nuisance and dangerous so I think the comparison is fair. I don't like dogs I don't have one, I'm still affected by other people's, I don't like the concept of fireworks at home but other people do, I'm not going to call for the ban of everything that I dislike.

Sorry but comparing fireworks to dogs is plainly ridiculous.

Do dogs bark non stop for hours night after night for 2 weeks or more? Do barking dogs cause terror for other dogs, cats, wildlife etc?

Do barking dogs cause absolute distress to the elderly, people with ptsd, people from war torn countries etc?

If a dog is causing a nuisance you can report it to the council and, as I know, they will take action. Shame the same can't be said about complaining about fireworks

Why are simpletons still setting them on a Sunday night?

No one is calling for a ban (for the tenth time!). Just a compromise which I think is fair and sensible.

I wish it was only the 10th time we've had to reiterate that the vast majority of people do not want a ban and would be perfectly content to limit it to public displays and the sale of quiet or silent fireworks for those who simply must have them at home.

Honestly it's like bashing your head against a brick wall trying to have a reasonable discussion with poeple who so clearly cannot be arsed to read the well thought out arguments already presented.

I agree @mydogisthebest

(I am typing this while I comfort a dog at the rescue centre again for the third night in a row because of all the fireworks going off around here. She’s absolutely terrified. Many people and animals suffer because of the actions of a small number of selfish people.)

[quote stingofthebutterfly]@PinkWaferBiscuit no, it's not a daft comment. If I go outside then it's full on. Here is no different to anywhere else. They're non-stop. I just struggle to believe that dogs and babies are that negatively affected by it if they're kept inside with general household noise going on. Some people will use anything as an excuse to get a bit of fun banned.[/quote]
You're an idiot. You 'struggle to believe' what people here are telling you as fact and its happening to them? Get entirely to fuck. I have 3 retired greyhounds who are absolutely terrified for weeks every year because of bastard fireworks. They are indoors, there are normal household sounds going on, if fact, I've spent a small fortune of prescription sedatives for them. And still, because some selfish bastards want their flashy bang bangs, my, and everyone else's pets have to suffer. Not fucking on.

@User135644

Why are simpletons still setting them on a Sunday night?

Because they can and it's their right and dogs are worse and why should you spoil their fun and it's tradition and repeat on a loop ad infinitum...

But equally remember everyone it's just one night and you're all fun sponges for moaning.

Yes @PinkWaferBiscuit probably more like a hundred in a thread 23 pages long. I have lost count of how many times it’s been said (and how many times people have said that they don’t like dogs so they don’t care).

I have also said several times that in my experience it has got worse over the last five years as fireworks have become more accessible. And it’s not just “one night” (also said ad nauseam).

We have them here too
Fewer thankfully.

@KeeOe it’s lovely that you have some ex racing greyhounds. Greyhounds are such gentle dogs. I worry about those that are stuck in kennels with no one to comfort them with fireworks going off around them or those who are racing with fireworks displays going off.

I don't even think its for the "fun" anymore. (Why its fun to celebrate an outdated pointless ritual is another story) I think people honestly do it to inflict themselves on everyone around them. I'm here look at me.

@mydogisthebest you clearly haven't lived near my grandparents' neighbours. The council aren't interested, they have 4 dogs; they terrorise local wildlife, including getting hold of a neighborhood cat and literally tearing it apart, growl bark and chase other dogs on the street and in the parks, they bark constantly. The owners don't pick up their faeces, and yes local residents are frightened of them because they are large and aggressive. No not all dogs are like that, but not all home firework displays are problematic and causing local pets to have heart attacks either. I have neither, but I'd sooner someone did something about those dogs than my neighbours' fireworks.

@WiddlinDiddlin I’m so sad after reading your post, I can’t bear to think of the suffering of that poor little soul. Currently on night 4 of sitting on the sofa trying to keep my dog calm and terrified that she’s going to have a heart attack.

So no sympathy at all for the spaniel who cut itself to ribbons jumping through a window in terror, and bled to death, hiding under a shed, then, @JurgensCakeBaby? Or the horse that injured herself and miscarried her foal? For any of the pets cowering in terror?

OK then.

[quote JurgensCakeBaby]@mydogisthebest you clearly haven't lived near my grandparents' neighbours. The council aren't interested, they have 4 dogs; they terrorise local wildlife, including getting hold of a neighborhood cat and literally tearing it apart, growl bark and chase other dogs on the street and in the parks, they bark constantly. The owners don't pick up their faeces, and yes local residents are frightened of them because they are large and aggressive. No not all dogs are like that, but not all home firework displays are problematic and causing local pets to have heart attacks either. I have neither, but I'd sooner someone did something about those dogs than my neighbours' fireworks.[/quote]
Irrelevant to this thread - the majority of dogs don’t do this (and of course something should be done about them). ALL fireworks cause distress.

@PinkWaferBiscuit

No one is calling for a ban (for the tenth time!). Just a compromise which I think is fair and sensible.

I wish it was only the 10th time we've had to reiterate that the vast majority of people do not want a ban and would be perfectly content to limit it to public displays and the sale of quiet or silent fireworks for those who simply must have them at home.

Honestly it's like bashing your head against a brick wall trying to have a reasonable discussion with poeple who so clearly cannot be arsed to read the well thought out arguments already presented.

I've got no issue with official public displays on November 5th (or a day or two either side), other religious celebrations and New Year's Eve.

People setting them off in their own gardens (on any date), or on estates, are just selfish twats and noisy fireworks should not be on sale to the public.

There's an obvious difference between an organised display and Joe Public launching them in the middle of the street or their back garden.

@I8toys

I don't even think its for the "fun" anymore. (Why its fun to celebrate an outdated pointless ritual is another story) I think people honestly do it to inflict themselves on everyone around them. I'm here look at me.

And stream it/take video for their social media.

People will do anything for attention these days.

Public displays would be better all round. It would give those a chance who do enjoy them to see them too, instead of having to stay and comfort pets or loved ones who are terrified.

[quote JurgensCakeBaby]@mydogisthebest you clearly haven't lived near my grandparents' neighbours. The council aren't interested, they have 4 dogs; they terrorise local wildlife, including getting hold of a neighborhood cat and literally tearing it apart, growl bark and chase other dogs on the street and in the parks, they bark constantly. The owners don't pick up their faeces, and yes local residents are frightened of them because they are large and aggressive. No not all dogs are like that, but not all home firework displays are problematic and causing local pets to have heart attacks either. I have neither, but I'd sooner someone did something about those dogs than my neighbours' fireworks.[/quote]
The owners of those dogs are feckless, selfish idiots. As are people setting off loud fireworks without a care in the world for the suffering it brings others.