Fireworks – pet owners’ bugbear

PET OWNERS in Vryheid are bracing themselves. The old Guy Fawkes Fifth of November tradition seems to have died in town, but it has been replaced by what is becoming a new tradition – fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

And pets hate fireworks, with their whizzes and bangs and sometimes thunderous explosions. They flee in terror, desperately attempting to escape the noise. A flat owner in High Street remembers one year that a dog chewed through chicken wire, tearing its mouth and gums, to get inside and escape the noise. After each New Year, pets go missing and strays end up at the SPCA. For pets it is traumatic.

On the night, the noise isn’t limited to an hour either side of midnight. One can hear the odd cracker days ahead and for a day or two afterwards, but on December 31, the sound of fireworks starts at sundown and reaches a crescendo at midnight. Some years Vryheid sounds like a war zone, downtown Beirut or Baghdad.

What can non-participatory pet-owning residents do about it?

It seems that they can do nothing apart from tranquillising themselves and their pets.

We asked the municipality these questions:

1. What exactly do the municipal by-laws say regarding the use of fireworks?

2. What exactly do the municipal by-laws say about the sale of fireworks?

3. Who are the registered vendors of fireworks in the municipal area?

4. What does the municipality advise in the case of a someone being inconvenienced by fireworks in the neighbourhood?

We got this reply (published as received);

1. The business premises must:

a. Ensure that it is an industrial building

b. Ensure that there are fully functional fire extinguishers

c. Must have proper seal storage unit of not more than 500kg to be stored

d. Visible signage’s of NO SMOKING, NO FLAMABLE SUBSTANCE etc.

e. Fire doors and assemblies and escape routes

f. Must have emergency evacuation plan

For further information visit www.abaqulusi.gov.za/ by-laws

Having been advised to consult the municipality’s by-laws on its website, we attempted to do so, but could find no reference to fireworks. We asked the municipality’s media liaison for clarification and received this response from Arnold Ramodibe:

“I have consulted extensively on the matter and it would seem that there is no specific By-Law preventing the use of fireworks.”

And so it would seem that residents who do not use fireworks are at the mercy of those that do.