To be sick of people moaning about their pets and fireworks?

[Sophiehoney]

There's currently a debate on my local Facebook page as the people in the street behind me let off a long, spectacular firework display in their back garden which was very loud.
It was absolutely brilliant and my kids loved it.

Someone has moaned that her four cats are terrified and others are joining in and saying their cats/dogs are also distressed.

They are all saying they should have had a warning?? Even though it's the weekend before bonfire night??

But what really annoys me is that if you click on this woman's name and see all her past posts, she's moaned about the same bloody thing at the same time of year for the past SIX years!!!

Why has she done nothing to prepare for this even though she knows full well it happens around the same time??!!!

I just don't think the public should be given anything with gunpowder in it... My cats don't care luckily but I feel really sorry for the poor doggos. And obviously there are more serious issues like distressed children with conditions. Regulate fireworks far more heavily I say.

I love a good moany thread.

I personally feel that drones should be used a bit more for public fireworks rather than explosives.

I think fireworks are going to be used less and less in the future, and its probably a good thing with the amount of problems they cause with injuries and fires etc.. there are always a few idiots that spoil nice things for rest of us. They are also pretty annoying, especially when it happens after 11 at random days around Guy Fawkes, and you have an early shift the next day.

This is coming from someone who finds animal people a little tiresome. Its your choice to own pets, and on balance I would say cats and dogs cause a lot more problems to society overall than fireworks do.

You still have another week of it to go.

I hope you take action to prevent the same happening next year.

What a nonsensible post

I’m not sure what action I can take tbh. He’s in the house with the curtains closed and the tv on getting cuddles. This is the first year he has been bothered by them 🤷‍♀️

How about veterans with PTSD? You sick of those to?

Let’s take animals out of the argument then.
what about the increased pressure on the emergency services because of increased injuries/fires caused by the irresponsible use of fireworks?

people are quick to complain about the nhs and wait times for ambulances, but are presumably perfectly happy for unavoidable emergencies to wait because some idiot blew his hand off with a firework, or because of a house fire caused by someone sticking a legally purchased firework through someone’s letterbox.

there is 0 reason why fireworks need to be sold to the public, there are plenty of public displays they can attend.

I agree with you.

We haven't had any aside from an organised diplay. My dog is fine because I've trained him from a young age, many owners don't bother .

They don't have to be tossed through a letterbox to cause damage/fires. My house was damaged this weekend by a neighbor's firework. I was hurt, and my dog was traumatised.

I was running on the treadmill when a massive explosion went off right outside my kitchen window, a few feet away from where I was running. I've a massive bruise on my hip where I fell off the treadmill when I tried to run away. The dog won't go in the kitchen anymore and appears to believe it was the treadmill that caused it.

I initially thought it exploded against my window, but when I went outside the next morning, the glass garden table was shattered and charred, so I think it hit the window and then exploded on the table. A plant with some of DH's ashes in it was also damaged. I've repotted it and brought it inside for now; hopefully it will survive, but the table is beyond repair.

The plant is irreplaceable. The table is going to set me back a few hundred to replace, but at least my neighbours got to say oooh at some lights in the sky, so I guess it was worth it

JFC! I'm so sorry to read about your DH's ashes. Just awful.

Do you have any legal recourse?

And a shout out to you and others (@Wetcoatsandmudagain and @unluckystar to name a few) who've been able to maintain some decorum in presenting their arguments - you are better people than me!

The neighbours have apologised and offered to help with replacing the table, but apparently, they can't afford to pay for a new table outright. They'll look on secondhand sites for a replacement or pay me monthly for it.

They can afford massive fucking rockets to set off in their shoebox of a garden, though. I asked them what the instructions said about how close they should have been set off to people's property, and they reckoned it said 6ft. They were more than 6ft away from my house.

At the moment, I'm just trying to be glad that I landed on my hip and not my head or neck, and that the table was glass and not wood. It could have been much worse.

The plant is a rose bush, so it should be hibernating, I think?

I hope so. Irreplaceable as you say. That must have been such an upsetting shock and discovery.

I wonder if your home insurance would cover anything?

It does bloody annoy me the way people wang on about fireworks. Why not try diverting that energy to the climate crisis? No you are only arsed about your dog being a bit distressed for a few hours
And 9 times out of 10 it absolutely IS people who don't give a shit about anybody or anything else for the rest of the year. People who moan about trigger warnings and health and safety gone mad, the rest of the year suddenly finding it in themselves to give a shit about vets with ptsd.
I absolutely do not think fireworks should be allowed in built up areas. You should need to register events with the council and get a permit to release big fireworks.
But I find the hysteria just as fkn annoying as the fireworks themselves tbh.
And yes I did used to have a lovely dog who was a bit anxious about fireworks but you wouldn't catch me demanding all fireworks were banned forever because everyone had to think of my dog.

It is possible to put energy into more than one thing. A lot of arguments include concern for wildlife - which forms part of the wider concern over climate change and environmental sustainability, due to the need for biodiversity and strong wildlife populations!

I think most reasonable people will stop wanging on when there are finally some kind of improved restrictions in place.

Fireworks should be banned, except for official displays. They are a real nuisance when people decide to let them off without warning. They affect both pets and wildlife. They also cause many injuries and some deaths every year through people and children not taking care.

Where I live they are banned for sale to the general public and have been for years. Generally , every council puts on a show on NY ( we don't have bonfire night) and the set ups in the cities are massive. I can actually watch my local ones from my back patio ( haha I sound like Sarah Palin) Never lived anywhere that hasn't had one, some schools do too, and put notices in letterboxes weeks before and charge a nominal fee to cover the cost , and hopefully make a profit. It's not very hard.

Most animals and wildlife are adversely affected by fireworks, not just your dog. And as others have said, fireworks add to pollution and climate change, so diverting energy to banning fireworks for home use might help the climate crisis.

The amount of fireworks and the times they are let off has increased every year. When I was young fireworks were sold for a very limited time in supermarkets and then gone. People didn't tend to buy them and keep them for another occasion as they would get damp outside and would risk explosion inside

That's different now, and I think that's the problem. People let them off for a death, a birth, a birthday it's constant that someone thinks it's a great idea to explode toxic rubbish into the air.

I would like to see them either increasing in cost to £500 per firework or keep them just to public displays. That would turn them into a luxury, reduce the use and mindlessness of them.

My neighbours dog jumped out of their bedroom window earlier this year and broke his back due to fear or fireworks. He was crying in fear before he made that decision to try to escape it and had to be put down as a result. But good for all of you who love them and think pets should just cope.

Around this time of year we get several goady posts of local SM with posters going on about having more or louder fireworks just to annoy the moaners. Obviously they are a*eholes, but I find this unnecessary nastiness quite upsetting especially on community network sites. Ok you have a different opinion to others, but you don't have to be nasty for no reason. Life can be hard enough without tssers putting the boot in.

Op have you ever seen a dead horse because fireworks terrified them so much they got colic and died? I have and I saw how devastated my friend was. Wildlife is affected not just cats and dogs. It’s distressing as an owner because try as you might you can’t always prepare an animal for it.

I’d ban the bloody things and those that say we’re a bunch of moaners are pretty stupid if they can’t understand the concerns of animal owners.

It doesn't have to be council funded though. If people are spending loads on them, they won't mind paying towards a big event that is better managed and would get more bang for their buck.

The ones I went to used to be set off to music and it was a highlight of the year.

At the moment they're not but I have a feeling they'll get restricted sooner or later. Thing is most people would just put up with it if it was 2 or 3 times a year like it's supposed to be but when they go off every other night for a month or more people get sick of it. The selfish and entitled have really taken the piss and will be what gets them banned for everyone.

It's always astounding that they are sold with no checks to anyone who can then do anything with the explosive materials inside them.

It does bloody annoy me the way people wang on about fireworks. Why not try diverting that energy to the climate crisis? No you are only arsed about your dog being a bit distressed for a few hours

Do you find that you’re only able to be concerned about one thing at a time? You might be able to get some help for that, but you might need to ask a little more nicely.