WATCH: uMhlanga protest calls for firework ban

IN light of several upcoming celebrations, demonstrators gathered on the uMhlanga promende to protest against the use of fireworks.

Toting posters with anti-animal cruelty slogans, the crowd stood on the lawns opposite the Whalebone Pier from 9am until about 12pm on Saturday, 31 October.

Animal rescue organisations, Ban Animal Trading (BAT) and Phoenix Animal Care and Treatment (PACT) co-hosted the demonstration- the first in a series of protests to take place across Durban.

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Nasheena Singh of BAT joined the demonstration.

“We recommend that people put their animals in a room with a radio on that is loud enough to distract the animal, in addition to sedating them. Please take care of your animals and keep them in a safe environment over this period. We love our pets like we love our family, we don’t want to see anything happen to our pets,” she added.

Neeri Naidoo of PACT said this is the busiest time of the year for animal rescue as fireworks impact both domestic and wild animals.

“We see the horrors of fireworks. We do patrols, which means we are away from our families during celebrations. Only on the next day do we see the aftermath- animals with severe injuries, animals that have been lost and separated from their owners. It affects wildlife too, we even see birds lying dead under trees,” she said.

La Lucia resident, Jane Avis, who volunteers for Monkey Helpline said fireworks impact monkeys as well.

“They get absolutely terrified and if they are having babies, they might abort. If you just watch the roads when fireworks are going off, there are cats, dogs, monkeys, Egyptian geese in terror,” she said.

Prathna Singh, director of BAT attended a similar demonstation in Johannesburg on Sunday.

“BAT hosts anti-firework demonstrations every year. This is not targeted at a specific celebration, but fireworks in general.

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“There are a lot of reasons why people use fireworks throughout the year. Next week Thursday is Guy Fawkes, then it’s Diwali and then we’ve got New Year’s and some people even use fireworks around Christmas,” she said.

Umhlanga resident, Rose Darrall, who has worked as a SPCA volunteer for over 20 years, has been involved in organising the demonstration.

“I asked them to host the protest here in uMhlanga because of the issue we have with fireworks here,” she said.

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