Group Says Wildlife Cannot Cope With Increasing Noise Levels and Duration of Noise
For Immediate Release:
January 14, 2000
Contact:
Jason Baker 98201 22602
Norfolk -- Now that the sulfur has cleared from the largest fireworks displays in human history, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is appealing to federal, state, and city governments around the world to pass a "code of conduct" that would include concerns for animals and children in plans for future public celebrations.
This holiday season has been hard on the animals in Hawaii and elsewhere. Last week the Hawaiian Humane Society saw an increase in the number of missing pets—115 in the three days before Christmas, many of whom ran away after having been frightened by fireworks. Hundreds of dead birds washed up on Hawaiian shores, their deaths caused by noise and enormous amounts of acrid smoke that resulted from the New Year’s fireworks display. In San Diego, California, on New Year’s Eve, city officials required that the city's fireworks "spectacular" be kept low to the ground to avoid frightening animals in residence at the San Diego Wildlife Park. In Israel, however, officials incurred the wrath of animal protectionists by releasing thousands of doves in Bethlehem at the precise moment firework "bombs" shot into the air. (Many doves had died during an earlier "practice release" due to dehydration and the failure to provide adequate food).
"The pyrotechnic people must be compelled to devise ways to entertain without scaring the daylights out of animals," says PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk. "Every city in the world with a noise ordinance violated it on January 1st. We need a more intelligent approach to fun than simply to make bigger and bigger bangs."
