Think of your kids, your pets – Say no to fireworks

In December every year we suddenly wake up and realise that fireworks will be discharged in our neighbourhoods in a few days time. By then it is too late to do anything about it.

Taking action against the idea, Mr Clive Hatch has begun a petition requesting that fireworks be banned in all residential areas.

Last year the Emalahleni Municipality demarcated various areas for firework displays, these areas included Lynville Tennis court, Klipfontein Dam, Phola soccer field, Ogies soccer field, Thubelihle soccer field, Ga-Nala rugby field, and Pine Ridge soccer stadium, to name a few.

Companies and institutions wishing to host fireworks displays were required to apply formally to receive permission – but this did not stop residents from taking to the parks and streets to fire off their rockets illegally.

a previous article featured in WITBANK NEWS titled ‘Fireworks ‘spark’ debate’ Mr Theo van Vuuren commented that in the case where people submitted a valid argument, their argument was too late to consider seeing as the public had been already informed that they may fire off fireworks, he added that the municipality did not receive any other objections prior to New Year’s Eve.

According to Van Vuuren’s previous statement, the law enforcement unit was ready and when the unit received sporadic complaints, mainly from areas not demarcated, they followed up swiftly. This peaked after midnight with many people shooting fireworks in streets or stands all across the city.

On that same note a number of fines were written out and people were warned by the task team during New Year’s celebrations, the local community policing forums joined hands with the municipal task team to help control the fireworks issue – however not all infringements were tended to as there was far too many complaints received and not enough man power to deal with them all.

“To totally ban it will just result in people shooting all over the city at a much larger scale as at present. We have however already started negotiations for this year with people selling fireworks, to only sell those with limited noise capacity. If we can achieve this most of the problems will hopefully be addressed. The institutional model of the SAPS, CPF’s and municipality working together holds promise as well,” said van Vuuren previously when questioned on how the municipality would deal with fireworks come the 2016 celebrations.

Fireworks are not animal-friendly. Invariably, when communities celebrate with fireworks, animal shelters are overwhelmed by an increased number of stray animals and reports of injuries and trauma to animals.

The Witbank SPCA received an influx of animals that ran from home, 41 in fact, of which only 15 were reunited with their owners.

“We had a lot of dogs running away from their homes due to the fireworks, sadly some of the owners did not come to the SPCA to see if their pet was here,” said Mr Nicolas Mahlangu, Witbank SPCA training inspector.

He went on to say that the SPCA received a call of a Boerbull that attempted to jump its owner’s wall and was injured in the process.

Animals have hypersensitive hearing compared to ourselves, so a bang which sounds loud to us must be deafening to a dog. Animals do not understand what’s going on. There’s nothing natural about the sights and sounds of a fireworks display. To an animal, it may be like the worst ever thunder and lightning storm.

If you also feel strongly about the fireworks issue you can contact Hatch via e-mail cliveh@yebo.co.za or contact him on 082 601 9376 to arrange for petition forms, similarly you can visit the Witbank SPCA where you can sign the petition.

Hatch requests that all petitions be brought back to him before October 20, this before the municipality starts issuing permits for New Year’s 2016.

ALSO READ:
Demarcated areas for fireworks during festive season
Illegal fireworks and the affect on animals