DEAR Editor,-
Perhaps ignorance rather than wanton cruelty is the excuse of many who discharge or defend the use of fireworks with both wide frequency and high decibel levels. It has been regularly noted in the papers that these noises are greatly amplified in the ears of animals who suffer trauma unimaginable to the offenders’ sensibilities. In spite of all the research and education in this field and the pleas for compassion based on the documented evidence that the hearing of most animals is far more acute than ours, the practice persists and the noise levels increase.
An average human will hear sounds only up to 20 000Hz. Dogs, on the other hand, can hear up to 65 000 Hz and cats to more than 80 000 Hz.
Imagine being able to hear sounds 80m away that we can barely hear at a distance of 20m. Imagine that in 0.06 of a second your ear pinpoints the direction of a sound. Imagine being blessed with these acute senses as a means of warning you of danger, and being subjected to the fireworks frenzy that humans describe as sounding like a “war zone” and “heavy artillery”? And remember, the noise is not only far louder, but they are hearing multiple frequencies that we are deaf to! Now picture yourself with an electronic device attached to your ears that will replicate the animal’s hearing in both volume and frequency response, and a ‘Big Bang’ rocket in your hand: will you light that fuse? If we subjected someone to this hypothetical experiment against their will, the human rights lobby would be at us like a shot, and rightly so. Now why are we inflicting this cruelty on animals and dismissing the evidence against our act?
And what about our wildlife? Marine animals and bats are so highly developed in this area that they use sonar to locate food. Owls have such acute hearing that they are able, from the air, to hear a mouse chewing or moving through undergrowth. What havoc are we wreaking on these creatures’ survival faculties? Who will speak for all the wildlife being subjected to this horrific assault?
Please remember that the animals are not only hearing a different decibel scale but also a range of frequencies out of our human ambit. We know these loud fireworks offend and traumatise many humans because they speak for themselves. Thankfully many people are aware of the far worse suffering of the animals and are speaking for them.
SUSAN HENDERSON
Dog Box Training School
Editor’s note: Letter shortened.
