Catriona MacLennan: Preparing for a terrifying night

On November 5 I will spend the evening crouched in the corner of a darkened room with my terrified cats. The sound of fireworks will be a barrage of explosions, frightening and incomprehensible to animals.

There is little I can do to reassure my cats - they can hear the noise no matter where they are in the house, and music cannot really deaden the explosive sounds.

Outside, our guinea pigs will huddle, terrified, in their straw bed. If I bring them inside, they will still be able to hear the fireworks but they will also be traumatised by being out of their familiar environment. Putting extra covers over their cage does little to protect them from the noise.

At places such as zoos which house large numbers of animals, there are even more limited options for protecting animals from the cacophony.

Guy Fawkes night is the night of the year on which animals are most likely to be lost or injured. Last year the Auckland SPCA collected 90 stray animals - many of them injured - in the week after November 5.

The normal tally for a week is 30 animals.

Animal injuries recorded in recent years include a cow running in panic and being killed after becoming entangled in an electric fence, a fox terrier being run over trying to escape from fireworks, and a duck's wings being burnt.

A survey of more than 1000 people conducted last year by Unitec's Professor Natalie Waran found that 60 per cent of the 3527 animals reported on were very, or extremely, scared by fireworks.

Behaviour recorded included hiding, shivering, cowering and escaping; 5.5 per cent of animals suffered physical injuries from fireworks, while 7.8 per cent of the people answering the survey had to seek treatment for their distressed animals.

It is time to ban the public sale of fireworks. They cause terror and physical injury to an untold tally of domestic animals each year.

Some animals will also be tortured using fireworks - for example, cases of fireworks being placed in kittens' ears, or noisy fireworks intentionally being used to frighten animals.

Horses were injured in the Wairarapa in 2004 after fireworks were deliberately thrown at them.

Each year the media carries stories of people - mainly children - suffering permanent injuries such as loss of sight as a result of fireworks.

Babies, like animals, spend a traumatic night on November 5 as they cannot understand the reason for the explosive noises.

Guy Fawkes 2005 was a particularly bad night. The fire service said it was the worst in 10 years, with a total of 1867 fires, up 70 per cent on 2004.

Police attended nearly 1200 fireworks-related incidents.

Chief fire officer Paul Baxter said there was evidence that the explosive power of fireworks was increasing, and static fireworks could shoot hundreds of feet into the air, making them virtually indistinguishable from skyrockets.

Skyrockets were banned after a disastrous 1994 Guy Fawkes night.

The statistics accordingly appear to indicate that people are becoming less - rather than more - responsible with fireworks.

Proponents argue that fireworks cause mayhem only on one night of the year, but this is far from the case.

Where I live, fireworks are being let off this month - presumably saved from last November. This demonstrates that restricting public sales to a 10-day period is ineffective in practice.

My parents had to call the fire brigade and run up and down steps with torches and buckets of water in February to prevent their house catching fire, after neighbours' fireworks set the garden alight.

Statistics indicate that the tide of public opinion has turned against fireworks.

A Stuff poll in November last year found that 57 per cent of New Zealanders now did nothing to mark Guy Fawkes night. A further 23 per cent watched a public display, while only 20 per cent let off fireworks themselves.

The Government should therefore act now to ban the public sale of fireworks and stop the annual toll of animal and human injury and property damage.

In the meantime, people should take steps to protect their animals by:

* Locking them inside - not only on Guy Fawkes night but also on the Friday and Saturday nights closest to November 5 as many people save fireworks for other nights.

* Making sure your pet is wearing a collar with contact details.

* Providing a dark environment inside the house with a cupboard, drawer, wardrobe or bed in or under which the animal can hide.

* Catriona MacLennan is a barrister and the author of Know Your Rights - A Practical Guide to the Law for Every New Zealand Household.