Current Events > Fireworks are bad for wildlife? Should they be stopped?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Found an article from an admittedly low tier university, but they're not the only place talking about this.

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-devastating-effects-of-fireworks-on-pets-and-wildlife/

Wild animals responses
The dangers are serious for wild animals like birds, squirrels, frogs and fish too. During fireworks explosions, nearby resting birds will flee in fear en masse from trees and ponds, and fly off into the night sky.
Some birds have flown so far out to sea, they would not physically have been able to return to land alive. Birds can crash into buildings, get lost and disoriented and literally fall, by the thousands, onto communities.
Because fireworks are launched at night, the full effects on wild animals are challenging to document. Researchers expect that millions of birds are affected around the world and that the results linger after the smoke has disappeared.
In spring and early summer, when animals like birds and squirrels are nesting or in the early stages of rearing their offspring, the risks are even greater. Babies die of dehydration or starvation when terrified or disoriented animal parents cannot find their way back to their nests and burrows. These painful deaths are particularly tragic because they are completely avoidable.

Personally I'm not sure what to think. How do you feel CE?

I can promise cars are way more dangerous.

I dont enjoy fireworks enough to say no here

Setting off thousands of tiny bombs is rarely good for anything. They are bombs.

Do these animals never experience thunderstorms?

Between the air pollution, potential fires, and bothering pets/PTSD suffers I think it's time to phase out fireworks. Sure, they're nice, but surely we can come up with a better way to celebrate holidays.

Ha, not just wildlife. Livestock and people with PTSD.

"Now DARE you not respect our troops with a patriotic Chinese made fireworks display???
...You did what? Oh, er, thank you for your service. No, you can't get treatment, that's socialism"

voldothegr8 posted...

Do these animals never experience thunderstorms?

thunderstorms barely phase my dog, but he flips the fuck out when fireworks are going off. he's been terrified from 8pm - midnight every night since Saturday. i even drug him with Trazadone and he's still a nervous wreck, trembling, panting and drooling from the anxiety.

Compsognathus posted...

They are bombs.

micro mini bombs.

casualty of 4th of july. 1 scared dog.

Compsognathus posted...

Setting off thousands of tiny bombs is rarely good for anything. They are bombs.

Incendiary grenades

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


and almost every city and local municipality has a fireworks display, but these people need their own private explosion show that they're in control of

I wouldn't mind one bit if private / amateur fireworks usage stopped, especially within city limits. Go see a professional show or sit on your damn roof and watch it from there if you're that interested.

They should be banned, as they also give people hearing damage

Bonfire Night in the UK has turned into Bonfire week in the past few years as people seem to think it's okay to launch fireworks whenever.

Ban fireworks except for professional displays. There's no reason why they should be sold in shops. It just distresses animals and vulnerable people. And I believe you can get silent fireworks now as well, so if people must have their own firework show, use those.

controlled professional shows are fine with me. but i'd ban them entirely from personal use.

never gonna happen though. america fetishists would throw a fit.

MarthGoomba posted...

They should be banned, as they also give people hearing damage

On that note, ban UTVs as well.

Yeah, I would be fine if it were only professional shows. When I was a kid I used to like walking to the beach with my family and watching the show. Then as I got older I experimented with fireworks and nearly set my neighbor's lawn on fire. Now I just hate the noise; especially when they're loud enough to set off car alarms.

MarthGoomba posted...

give people hearing damage

i gone deaf in my left hear. i cant hear anything out of it :(.
wasn't even due to fireworks or loud music.

AndreLeGeant posted...

I can promise cars are way more dangerous.

Nuclear weapons are worse than cars so we don't need to worry about or regulate cars? (you would probably agree with this ridiculous statement)

This is such a conservative mindset, a what-about-ism that implies if something is worse than something else we need not worry about the thing that is less bad.

being bad for wildlife isn't my main concern, but I still think that they should probably be banned

Cars serve a purpose unlike fireworks and are not intended for destructive use, unlike fireworks, and guns.

Fireworks are bad for literally everything and everybody.

masterpug53 posted...

I wouldn't mind one bit if private / amateur fireworks usage stopped, especially within city limits. Go see a professional show or sit on your damn roof and watch it from there if you're that interested.

Yeah, a lot of fireworks used to be illegal in my state until pretty recently. Pretty much if you launched it into the air it was illegal. I honestly liked it better when those were banned. Now you have assholes setting them off in residential areas which is illegal, but the cops obviously don't really care since it's so widespread.

AndreLeGeant posted...

I can promise cars are way more dangerous.

True, but completely irrelevant. The country is built around road vehicles, making avoiding them practically impossible. The country is not built around fireworks, and avoiding them is purely a matter of choosing to.

Replace them with drone shows.

You guys never made your own cat chasers? No crap flappers? No hoosker do's, and hoosker don'ts?

Ya'll missing out.

Villain_S_Fiend posted...

True, but completely irrelevant. The country is built around road vehicles, making avoiding them practically impossible. The country is not built around fireworks, and avoiding them is purely a matter of choosing to.

I mean, moving away from car-centric hellscapes would be a significantly larger improvement than getting rid of fireworks

Just like guns and alcohol, you will never see fireworks be banned because proud old America loves their booms too much.

The-19th-Sparta posted...

Just like guns and alcohol, you will never see fireworks be banned because proud old America loves their booms too much.

You realize they're legal in much of the world and Americans aren't the only people who enjoy big colorful boom booms, right?

Nah. Fireworks are fine as long as you don't start a fire with them.

voldothegr8 posted...

You realize they're legal in much of the world and Americans aren't the only people who enjoy big colorful boom booms, right?

Lmfao @ you thinking anywhere but the Great America matters.

Dancedreamer posted...

Replace them with drone shows.

i like that. removes the loud noises so our pets and PTSD people wont have to suffer.

I just want them to properly enforce not using them during burn bans.

Speaking of hearing loss....I lost my left ear for about 45min today. I was going 70mph pulling a trailer and a passing semi blew his rear wheel about 8ft from my downed window.

Felt like someone tossed a grenade in my truck. Scared the shit outta me.

Ban guns first. Then we can worry about fireworks.

Gobstoppers12 posted...

Nah. Fireworks are fine as long as you don't start a fire with them.

Which is why non-professionals shouldn't use them.

Kinda weird that handling explosives literally requires nothing but a valid ID in large swaths of the nation. You could live somewhere where it's harder to vote than to buy fireworks.