So it’s New Year’s Eve and av8rmike came to town and we went down to First Night 2006 in downtown Pittsburgh. Well, at midnight, there’s usually a fireworks display there.
And we’re standing by PNC Park, (where I believe Three Rivers Stadium used to be), and I spot some woman playing fetch with her dog. It’s five minutes to midnight.
Then the fireworks eventually start, and the dog starts howling. People, why do you do this? The loud noise hurts the poor animal’s ears. Dogs have more sensitive hearing. I’ll never forget going to family picnics on the 4th of July and seeing someone bring a dog that would always freak out when my cousin did his fireworks. Or at the local park’s 4th display-it always happens.
Your dog doesn’t need to be there. Seriously, he doesn’t give a shit about the pretty colors, he just knows it hurts his ears. Why would you do that to the poor animal?
Yes, we had some people next to us last night, with two dogs and a youngish child (about 3 months old I’d say). The dogs and the baby howled and screamed respectively throughout the firework display. I kept wondering why they’d bothered to come at all.
Because…they couldn’t get a sitter for New Year’s Eve? Because…it didn’t occur to them that their dogs, or their baby, might be upset by the fireworks?
What may look to you like “People behaving like dumbasses” are sometimes really just “people having a valuable learning experience”, ya know.
One reason - and this doesn’t make it right, but I can see why it might happen - is that sometimes New Year’s Eve is a big, multiple-hour family fun trip. The dog is part of the family, and perhaps the 10 minutes of ear-banging pain may not counterbalance the hours and hours of family fun.
'Course, it’s not a problem for me - I’d happily stay home with my dog instead of going to see fireworks. YMMV … partly because I don’t yet have a dog …
I have a Jack Russell Terrier who goes ballistic at the sound of fireworks or gunfire, both of which occur way too often in my neighborhood. He sleeps in the bed with me. Being awakened by a barking, growling, snarling dog exploding out of your bed is a rather singular experience.
People who knowingly expose their dogs to such stimuli are clueless, self-centered idiots. No, really.
Perhaps, but how could you NOT realize that fireworks might upset a dog? It’s pretty much common knowledge that dogs have more sensitive hearing than humans, hense, we have dog whistles that only dogs can hear.
I know that special cases make bad law, but my dog 99 used to LOVE fireworks. We lived near Argyle and Sheridan in Chicago for four years. She loved being up close to the action on Chinese New Year. Man, I miss her. Sigh.
Then they should stay the fuck home instead of inflicting their spawn on those of us who either don’t have children or were smart enough to line up a sitter ahead of time.
I’m not complaining because the dog was there and somehow that bothers me. I like seeing people out with their dogs.
No, I’m upset because I think it is cruel to take an animal to an event where there are loud noises that might hurt its poor ears, or scare it. My old dog used to get a case of the shakes on New Years Eve from all the noise in the neighborhood. My cat Buffy, who freaks out and hides during thunder storms acts pretty much the same way-when I got home last night, my mother found her under the sofa, shaking all over from the noise (a few stray booms in the distance).
If there weren’t fireworks, I wouldn’t care. It’s just not fair to the animals. lissener, that’s pretty cool, actually.
