Fireworks!

[sarahp]

Sadly I lost a foal this morning after a major loud and bright display of fireworks locally last night. Born prematurely and dead. Beautiful buckskin filly by my pally stallion from an elderly mare newish to me who apparently doesn't like bangs at night. You don't expect them at this time of year, and I was asleep in bed and didn't know anything about them until the morning - OH saw and heard them but nothing we could have done then anyway.

[larkhaven]

So very sorry for your loss - I hate fireworks!

[rubydoo]

aww thats terrible

[kaybrook]

Very sorry to hear this

[GinaGeo]

So sorry for your loss, such a waste.

[Louise Dixon]

That's awful, I really would ban them. Sorry for your loss.

[comanchediva]

So sorry for your loss. I do t think we're anywhere near you but we heard fireworks last night. Our lurcher gets very upset with the noise xx

[gillwales]

very sorry to hear this, it's about time that fireworks were not sold to members of the public

[irishcob]

How awful for you, terribly sorry to hear this. So often the general public has no idea of the effects that fireworks can have on livestock, resulting in so much distress, many injuries, and unfortunately sometimes deaths.

[sarahp]

Thank you all for your sympathy, I wanted to publicise how much damage fireworks can do - they were VERY loud, bright and a long lasting display. I will track down a phone number and speak to where I think they came from but they were doing nothing illegal, just selfish, irresponsible and inconsiderate. My first two ports of call were both innocent and very helpful in finding the source of the display - the second was a big corporate entertainment place who told me that they have an absolute ban on both fireworks and those Chinese fire lanterns which earned them lots of Brownie points from me, and also said they will email me and warn of any noisy stuff they are doing - they did have a clay pigeon shoot recently but we can live with that, at first I thought it was a farmer rabbit shooting.

What with all that and the hot air balloons and helicopters living in the SE is hardly a peaceful rural place to be! I'm happy for the ponies to get used to noises, so shooting and helicopters within reason don't worry me. Low flying hot air balloons (one company in particular is a persistent offender and obviously don't care a stuff about anyone else) do though, and I now add fireworks to the list, first time we've had any intrusive enough to be a problem.

[wol]

Sorry to hear that Sarah. An adjoining property to mine had a fireworks display at the weekend for a wedding. They did very kindly prewarn me in the week with a letter but I guess the effects would probably have been felt further away than they distributed letters.

[sarahp]

Even if pre warned not much you can do except possibly sedating anyway - I don't want to shut up in a box as they will still get the noise and lights but be imprisoned in a small space, which to a prey animal who uses flight for protection must be more stressful than being out and able to find the furthest point away.