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??!!!

Presumably you feel equally strongly that pet cats should be banned, given the horrendous effect they have on wildlife? And dogs too, since it isn't fair on the animals and humans they frighten and they are around much more than fireworks.

Also, doesnt sound like you've realised that if we only have displays, there'll have to be loads of them in order to prevent people simply buying what will no doubt be abundantly available illegally imported ones. I'm an advocate for more displays, but people do need to understand it isn't a free lunch. There isn't an option where the current cultural enjoyment of fireworks can be corralled into displays held on one night nowhere near houses.

Ear muffs or something to cover their ears?

🙄

At the end of the day as few pets getting scared off fireworks isn't a big deal to me.

The problem is there’s an army of inconsiderate pet/dog owners that make peoples live a misery all year round

so it’s no surprise that a lot of people don’t give a fuck about pets that make there life a misery ( sat listening to a dog 4 doors down bark as I type)

Exactly this. Really hard to sympathise with the furry dickheads to be honest.

A local school did their display last night.

Doesn’t seem like actual organised displays would make them going off shorter this time of year. A pub had theirs Sunday, a different school did theirs Saturday. Friday the rugby club did theirs. Thursday a different pub did theirs. The 5th loads of places. But the official displays started from the 1st and I’m sure I could probably still find one for tonight.

It sounds as if your dogs have inherited your dramatic nature 😂

Watch this and ask the question again.
My God, how have we got to the place where you think it’s ok to pour scorn on genuine fear and anguish..
Apart from anything else the ones you get now are so extreme, they cause distress for so many demographics. I personally always feel worse for the wildlife who don’t have any owners doing their best to support their animals. I live near to a rescue centre, if you heard the absolute agony and distress caused by constant fireworks night after night then I would hope you’d understand how selfish and inhumane your irritation and attitude. Quite disgusted by this post tbh.
watch this and tell me how you ‘prepare’ for the impact on this poor dog who has to suffer just so a bunch of privileged humans can have a few minutes of ‘fun’.
www.facebook.com/share/r/1Ckc6vc1g5/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Unfortunately this picture isn’t me proudly capturing my almost 10 year old dog Fiona setting out in her new career as a superstar DJ (although if it’s good enough for Deadmau5 then I’m not entirely ruling it out!). Sadly, she’s wearing noise cancelling headphones / ear muffs, on top of a fabric snood, and with calming dog music being played loudly in the background, in an essential (but largely vain) attempt to partially muffle the noise of the fireworks going off nearby and prevent her from descending into a terrified, panicked, panting mess. On the worst nights when we know a planned event is taking place, we’ve now had to place her in kennels (which are thankfully in a more rural location) in the hope she is able to have a night without too much stress and anxiety. But we can’t always plan for the nights that will be the noisiest.

I have no problem with people celebrating Bonfire Night, but I do struggle to understand why it now needs to be stretched over a full 2-3 week period with explosions going off each night often with no warning, why there seems to be little to no enforcement of compliance with noise laws during this period (at least where I live with people regularly setting off bangers/airbombs well past the normal and extended cutoff times) and why some of the bombs need to be so loud.

There is a current petition to reduce the maximum decibel level from 120db to 90 which I think is more than sufficient. My personal preference would be for the universal adoption of ‘silent’ fireworks, but even a small compromise such as the noise reduction above would, I’m sure, make a difference for many and be gratefully welcomed…particularly by us responsible dog owners who have well trained, well behaved dogs whose shit we always pick up.

have empathy and my cat sleeps through them but some are terrified, a baby was recently mauled because a dog was so distressed over fireworks

Wasn’t that just conjecture and speculation by a neighbour and actually it came out there weren’t any fireworks going off that night? Even if it were the case, that’s still a dog problem, not a fireworks problem

Ah so not the dogs fault if it attacks a baby? Goodness, the reach to excuse dogs from bad behaviour! It hasn't been proven to be due to fireworks that the dog mauled a baby, so a definite reach. Personally I'd blame the dog if it mauled a baby rather than look for excuses to keep it around babies.

It's the owners rather than the dogs who are morally culpable for any attacks, but otherwise agree.

Totally.

Yep. Just speculation.

She wasn't even in the house and had no idea what had actually happened.

Hopefully you’ll become a bit more knowledgable about the complexities of animals as you get more experience.

Oooh a gammer school education and an Masters degree. Can I raise you my grammar school education, BSc, MSc, PGCE, 2 other post graduate certificates, Prince 2 and my certificate of attendance at a bullshit work training course?

There are a couple of government petitions going at the moment, one to limit fireworks to council-approved displays only & one to reduce the maximum noise level from 120 to 90db. They’ll come up if people Google government petitions fireworks.

I would be willing to bet dogs don't cause distress to anywhere near the number of people that fireworks do. They are rarely used as weapons and how often do they attack emergency services?

I really cannot understand how something as dangerous as fireworks are still allowed to be sold to just anyone.

My dog has never terrorised any wildlife and neither have any of my friends' dogs.

Never seen a dog responsible for a horse injury or death either.

Of course there are some irresponsible dog owners but there are far more irresponsible and selfish people using fireworks

Well then you are a selfish idiot several farm animals round my way died after being frightened by a large firework display.
You eouldnt be that smug if it was your kid that died of fright would you?
People like you make me sick.

Mmm I expect you would be willing to bet that. It's clearly a belief you hold dear. The more important point, though, is whether you've got any evidence for it.

After all, you thinking something is neither here nor there really. You're colossally biased, have no expertise on the subject and hadn't realised until it was pointed out that your dog's mere presence is a potential trigger for anyone with a dog related phobia or PTSD. So, there are two choices for you here. Either prove the claim or it will be the meaningless wishful thinking of someone who doesn't like being told they're a hypocrite with no moral high ground.

It's interesting though, because you've not even attempted to factor in that dogs are a constant, 366/5 days of the year. Fireworks clearly aren't. And if the exact number of dog attacks on emergency services is important, you'll also need to take the same approach to the number of firework attacks too. Again, no hypocrisy or double standards.

But some dogs DO terrorise wildlife.

Plenty of irresponsible dog owners around. They allow them to terrify those who are scared of dogs, they allow them to jump up at people and that is year round, not just a certain time of year.