Fireworks are a hugely enjoyed tradition for many events, and they are used around the globe to celebrate the coming of the new year. But for the majority living in the country they are a nightmare. We have roughly 130 species of birds, 107 species of mammal and 6 reptile species, and all of these are negatively impacted by fireworks.

In terms of pets, dogs and cats are both impacted by fireworks. One study found half of the pets surveyed displayed anxiety during firework displays, with 6% sustaining injury (Dale et al., 2010). Another found, over 3/4 of respondents stated their pet was frightened of fireworks, with almost 350 pets being injured as a result (Gates, Zito, Walker, and Dale, 2019). For rodents, almost half of rabbit and guinea pig owners in one survey said their pet experienced firework stress (Oxley, et al., 2018). Horses are also impacted with a quarter of respondents in one study stating that their horse had sustained injurys as a result of a firework fear (Gronqvist, Rogers, and Gee, 2016).

For birds, one long term survey found that during New Years firework displays almost 700 geese, 2,000 duck, and over 9,000 small birds per km2 were frightened and fled the area. This was found to result in almost 5,000 fatalities across the survey. They found that the death of young cormorants was 30 times higher than normal and up to 83% of total nest loss occured on the nights of fireworks (Stickroth, 2015). On New Years, the number of roosting magpies in one study dropped from 30, to just 5 (Karolewski et al., (2014).

Firework displays may also be impacting marine life, whether it is stressing mammals such as seals (Thorson, and Berg, 2007), or potentially disrupting fish shoals.

As such it is imperative to rethink how we manage firework displays. At home firework usage appears to be getting more popular over the years, and more frequent. Fireworks are not legally designated to certain days, and as such can create continuous disturbances. Displays that are organised by the council or similar will advertise and inform, people will know when the display will start and when it will finish and can prepare their pets. This is not possible for at home displays. As such only silent and low noise fireworks should be sold for at home, personal use. This would reduce the impact of noise pollution, and noise anxiety in pets and wild animals across the country. This would not limit personal use of fireworks, and would not impact public displays, however would aim to reduce the impact that fireworks have on the majority of living beings in the country.