26/03/2022
It's very tongue-in-cheek but there's a serious meaning behind this.
Most people calling for a ban or further restrictions on fireworks own a dog or cat and they believe that gives them the right to demand law changes.
The reality is that dogs injure more people every year than fireworks - in 2017 they caused 11590 NHS bed days compared to just 240 caused by misuse of fireworks. In 20 years there have been ZERO deaths from consumer fireworks in the UK, yet dogs have killed at least 56 people, mainly children in the same timeframe between 1995-2016.
An average dog has the same environmental impact as a small car, producing not just CO2 but copious amounts of hazardous excrement and plastic waste. A 2019 study reported that the average Dutch dog’s carbon emissions just for food were up to 1.4 tonnes and cats were up to 0.25 tonnes. This is nearly double the annual electricity carbon emissions for the average UK household just for dog food and about a third of household electricity emissions for the average cat’s food. Grossly more than is created through firework use.
20.8 million dogs and cats consuming just one tin or unrecyclable plastic package of cat food per day results in 7.6 billion containers being manufactured each year, just in the UK. Add to this, another 3.6 billion plastic bags for picking up the estimated 1.2 million tons of dog-poop and then there is the issue of disposing of 200 thousand tons of cat waste.
The vast majority of firework waste is recyclable and made of cardboard.
And then there's the wildlife impact. If you read through the Anti-Firework group posts you'll see claims of how fireworks impact birds and other wildlife. Although the RSPB deny these claims and there is ZERO evidence that any other wildlife is harmed through firework use, this misinformation is rife. And yet, cats and dogs kill up to 200 million birds and mammals each year without pet owners seemingly caring.
The Mammal Society estimated in 1998 that 63 million small mammals, frogs and snakes and 27 million birds were killed every year by UK cats. House sparrows, blue t**s, thrushes and blackbirds are among the most common killed. Another UK study estimated that each cat kills 18.3 wild prey each year. This would equate to 200 million wild mammals and birds killed in 2019, including 54 million birds
Of real concern is the vulnerability of endangered bird species in habitats close to urban cats. When some species are down to the last few dozen, every one lost to cat-predation may be a final step to extinction. The study also showed cats only consumed 24 per cent of their prey; 28 per cent was brought home to their owners and the rest just left where it was killed.
We have no issue with pets but we do have issues with people in glass houses throwing stones. The statistics above are just the tip of the iceberg. We haven't even mentioned that more people are scared of dogs than they are of fireworks, the thousands in the UK with PTSD as a result of a dog attack. the hundreds of thousands of farm animals killed by dogs each year or the fact noise complaints to councils about dogs barking far exceeds complaints about firework noise.
Our point is if Julie Doorne and her campaigners really care about those with PTSD, or the environment, or the drain on the NHS, or anti-social noise, or the welfare of wildlife, they should be campaigning to decrease the amount of cats and dogs in the UK a long way before campaigning for fireworks to be further regulated.
The fact is they really don't care about the environment, wildlife, noise or the NHS - they only care about their own little 'fur baby' getting slightly upset for a couple of hours a year. This alone does not warrant changes that would adversely affect tens of millions of law abiding people who enjoy firework use each year.
