I will reluctantly, as I am being glared at by the ghost of my teen-self, endorsing this pitting. The last few years in Colorado have been so dry that firework/burn bans were the norm, but for the last month or so the front range has been downright soggy. And so it’s been pop-pop-pop for at least a week now, with the frequency and quantity increasing every day. Right now, it’s pretty much non-stop as of 5 'till nine.
My cats are nervous, but surviving, the snakes, well snakes don’t give a S*** about much, and my wife’s headache (from too much sun and wine with her folks for the holiday BBQ) is elevating to dangerous levels. Right now though I’m about an hour from hitting the sack so I can go up and work tomorrow and hoping that the OTC sleep aid and bluetooth-enabled nightmask can help me overcome the endless cacophony.
I mean I like fireworks. I sympathize with the pet folks but it should be one or two nights a year, localized to certain sites for professional displays and folks have been putting up with noise disruptions since forever (I had a dog that was terrified every time a thunderstorm hit). In the scheme of thing as the OP acknowledges it can be a tolerable imposition, like tolerating a neighbor’s very occasional loud party. As long as it is very occasional.
The problem is everyone and their cousin firing them off for days or weeks in neighborhoods with all the lack of safety precautions brain-dead drunk idiots can muster*. In a severe drought. After suffering through a fucking horrendous fire season last year. I mean it is like people forgot we were living on Mars for a few days last summer. It takes a special kind of moron to be risking backyard fireworks in most of CA right now.
Never mind the people who fire guns wildly into the air in my area . I pick bullets up off the ground on my worksite almost every year.
*I will admit to once taking part in a “backyard” firework display with a couple of cousins when I was a kid. Of course that was on a cleared Florida sand beach and fired out over the Atlantic Ocean.
I support this pitting. My neighborhood has been setting off fireworks every night since May 1. (Aren’t fireworks expensive?)
All afternoon, little kids were sprinkling sand-like-things on the ground that made crackling noises. Now the pyromaniac adults have started. Fireworks so loud car alarms go off for blocks. It’s not even dark. I anticipate fireworks every day through September. People worship noise.
There have already been several non-firework related fires along 280 (less than 1/2 mile away) in the last couple of weeks. There’s enough dry vegetation around that a fire could have catastrophic results, so yeah, fuck anyone who decides they need to celebrate with pyrotechnics.
(Oh, I didn’t mention the additional fact that fireworks are illegal in San Jose)
Fireworks are a part of my summer every year, because I live in an apartment complex that houses a lot of college students and other youngish adults. Last night, when it was still light enough to read, I was sitting on my porch doing exactly that when someone set off something with a strong enough concussion, the ducks panicked and ran to the creek. About the only other thing that will do that is a hawk or eagle overhead.
There was someone down the street from us who blew off a home made black powder canon several times a year. That stopped when he blew his right index finger off. He also ended up with a felony charge for making a “pipe bomb”.
Every July the deaths, the lost limbs, the house fires, and the blindings repeat. A few years back we had a thread going with links to the fireworks accidents of the year. There were dozens. A simple google already brings up multiple stories of deaths and injuries again for 2021.
But folks seem to love fireworks anyway regardless of the dangers. So keep your dogs safe with the knowledge that when this weekend is finally over these dogs will at least still have their four legs, sight, and a roof over their heads.
Or maybe not. Bottle rockets have been known to land on roofs and start house fires. Sadly, the ones I heard about didn’t burn down the pyro’s house, just innocent neighbors’ houses.
Shouldn’t those concerned with animal welfare rather be upset about the millions of animals butchered to land on the grill that day, rather than the scared ones that (usually) turn out fine afterwards? Both practices disregard animal welfare for the sake of personal pleasure: either the spectacle of fireworks or the taste of a burger or steak from the grill. But the animals in the former case typically recover, while those in the latter stay eaten.
What obliges those setting off fireworks to care about your family members that wouldn’t also oblige them to care about other animals in general? After all, to them, that’s what they are; so either you’re arguing that they deserve special consideration because they are your family members, or you’d have to argue that all animals in general deserve such consideration.
It’s understandable that you’re more upset by the harm caused to your pets, but that in itself doesn’t oblige anyone to do anything.
I’ll bet you would get a better reception if you were to start a thread about how hypocritical you feel that some people are because they are more worried about their pets than the cows on their BBQ.
Personally, I don’t like fireworks because my state is already burning and I think its stupid to make things worse. Plus, I own my home and wouldn’t like to have it burnt down by some selfish asshole.
. I pick bullets up off the ground on my worksite almost every year.
