Just 175 firework complaints over the weekend?

threepaws said :

Duke said :

You keep three working dogs couped up in a Canberra backyard, loaded up on human prescription medicine……….sounds rather inhumane to me.

Ok Duke, let’s get a couple of things straight…

If you read my previous posts, I DO NOT sedate them (the whole point of my comments).

TWO dogs.

Quite frankly this is none of your business, but due to shift work, there are 10 ‘business hour’ days in any 12 week period where either my partner or I are not at home.

I do not have to justify to you how I care for my dogs, and how much exercise they get, or how old they are, or how happy they are, just like you do not need to comment again for me to know what type of person you are.

Is replying with ‘Dude, you have a short fuse’ still on topic?

Yes, please ban work.

My dog hates being left alone when people go to work, better ban that too.

If we are going to ban fireworks can I please request that we also ban lightning and the accompanying thunder. It scares my dogs, and on top of that it often occurs at all hours of the night all year round without any consideration to myself or my dogs.

I fully support the idea that people should have the chance to take themselves out of the gene pool. We need bigger explosives for people to play with.

I found a couple of nights of things going bang far more relaxing to the constant yapping of mutts, and cats prowling about, yowling and knocking stuff over that occurs for the other 363 nights of the year.

How does 175 complaints compare to complaints over animal noise? Not that I’ve complained about either, I can find better ways to waste my time – like posting drivel on the internet.

Think about me, a practitioner of homeopathy. The headaches. I only have to walk down the street. I know that I am unlikely to breathe a single solid particle of gunpowder or molecule of nitrogen dioxide or sulphur trioxide. It’s the essence, the essence of violence, of toxic chemicals, GHGs included. I’m not sure that it isn’t worse than drinking water that comes from sewerage.

Duke said :

You keep three working dogs couped up in a Canberra backyard, loaded up on human prescription medicine……….sounds rather inhumane to me.

Ok Duke, let’s get a couple of things straight…

If you read my previous posts, I DO NOT sedate them (the whole point of my comments).

TWO dogs.

Quite frankly this is none of your business, but due to shift work, there are 10 ‘business hour’ days in any 12 week period where either my partner or I are not at home.

I do not have to justify to you how I care for my dogs, and how much exercise they get, or how old they are, or how happy they are, just like you do not need to comment again for me to know what type of person you are.

A firework took my baby!

BerraBoy68 said :

Pesty said :

In the UK people have gone away from home fireworks and embraced public displays. These are organised so safe and you get 2000% more bang for your buck if you pardon the pun! Its much easier on the animals too. This came about more from the number of kiddies losing didgits and eyes more than the pet issue.

JB Mark Parton thinks they should be banned!

Sorry for the double post but which ‘people’ are you talking about, Pesty? Not having a go at you (honestly!) but what percentages are you talking about? All of my family are in the UK (London) and they rarely go to organised displays, other than family get-together on Guy-Fawkes night that is (Good grief! What would Hargraves make of kids competing to make an effigy of a real person to purposely burn atop a flaming pile of wood? His head would explode at the thought, surely!)

There have always been organised ‘bonfire’ nights (as we used to call them) in the UK as well as families letting off their own crackers so I’d be interested if you have any data you can provide.

On a related topic, a neighbour of mine is a nurse and she told me on Friday they always have injuries over the Queens Birthday weekend with burns to hands, missing fingers etc. I asked her if the people with said injuries received their wounds doing stupid and/or illegal things and she said “always”. So another question is why not have a cop or two stationed at the hospitals over the cracker night to interview and arrest these idiots as they are seen to.

Finally, 175 complaints to Reg Affairs and 205 to the police? How many of these would have been several people ringing up about the one incident, or one person ringing several times wanting to know what action is/has been taken on their initial complaint. I’m not sure, but I bet this is skewing the stats as provided by Hargreaves.

I’m talking about the majority, in Cornwall at least, people in London tend to have more money than sense. Yes, you still see fireworks, but not in the numbers there were when I was a kid (don’t ask) And then there is your point:

I asked her if the people with said injuries received their wounds doing stupid and/or illegal things and she said “always”.

Surely to goodness anybody losing fingers (punishment enough I think without the cops getting involved) must be more serious than an agitated cat! So why is that all we are hearing? Poor mutt or poor moggie!

As for Mark Parton he admitted on air this morning that he is a hypocrite, but also that it was probably his last chance to do it.

I reckon they could make silent fireworks you could only see with special glasses and some people would still find something to complain about.

“I’m sensitive to hypersonic frequencies!”
“They throw out the chi flowing into my koi pond!”
“Special glasses remind me of childhood trauma!”
“I have a dog and I’m just against stuff, so there!”

This year, Mrs Danman and I decided against smoking up our money, however, our across the road neighbors delighted in letting them off.

What I found quite exceptional was that they knew we were dog owners and came around that day to warn us that they intended letting them off. They explained that they were aware we had 2 dogs and just wanted to warn us that they were letting them off… Totally gobsmacked, I thanked them for coming over and warning us and shut the door with a big smile, thinking that it was awfully nice of them.

For the record, our dogs are inside/outside dogs (We have a doggy door and they call the shots) and with a street sounding like a war zone for 2 days, our dogs reaction was to sit with us humans and prick their ears up when they heard fireworks… Barely distressful…

You keep three working dogs couped up in a Canberra backyard, loaded up on human prescription medicine……….sounds rather inhumane to me.

Unfortunately, yes.

After an injury, my doctor prescibed valium and I started on 1/4 of a 5mg tablet. During the course of the drug, my resistance increased until I was taking a maximum of 1.5 tablets.

My vet was going to prescribe 8 x 5mg tablets per dose for my dogs. I am sure that animals metabolise them differently, but this amount is why I cannot bring myself to do it. Based on my personal experience, it is between 32 times and 5 times the standard dose for a human.

Like I said, if there is an alternative, bring it on!

Equivalent to 8 Valiums!?! Golly!

There would probably be a number of the less lawful firework loving community who would swap their crackers for 8 valiums.

poptop said :

threepaws, I wasn’t trying to be unduly frivolous in suggesting the animals come inside; it works in the vast majority of cases. My dog goes birko at thunderstorms, but manages fireworks from inside the house very nicely. It seems your dogs may be more than usually sensitive or anxious.

If I was concerned about my pet and knew cracker night was coming up, I’d get some travel sedatives from the vet. Sure it’s an expense, but it would protect my animal from a couple of nights that would otherwise be difficult.

Fireworks are particularly annoying for me because my dogs (of a working breed) are not sensitive or anxious at all, bar fireworks.

As I mentioned on another post, consultation with my vet tells me that the amount needed to sedate my dogs is a dose of 8 valium tablets. It is not about cost – I can’t bring myself to put my dogs health at risk by giving them an amount of a drug that would land a human in hospital.

If it was only ‘a couple of nights’ over a weekend that I had to worry about, I wouldn’t hate the damn things so much. But we all know they will be popping long after this weekend. If there was a way that I could knock them out or dull their senses without compromising their health, I would do it in a heartbeat. (I’m talking about my dogs, not the people who are still letting off fireworks of course :))

threepaws, I wasn’t trying to be unduly frivolous in suggesting the animals come inside; it works in the vast majority of cases. My dog goes birko at thunderstorms, but manages fireworks from inside the house very nicely. It seems your dogs may be more than usually sensitive or anxious.

If I was concerned about my pet and knew cracker night was coming up, I’d get some travel sedatives from the vet. Sure it’s an expense, but it would protect my animal from a couple of nights that would otherwise be difficult.

Pesty said :

In the UK people have gone away from home fireworks and embraced public displays. These are organised so safe and you get 2000% more bang for your buck if you pardon the pun! Its much easier onn the animals too. This came about more from the number of kiddies losing didgits and eyes more than the pet issue.

JB Mark Parton thinks they should be banned!

Sorry for the double post but which ‘people’ are you talking about, Pesty? Not having a go at you (honestly!) but what percentages are you talking about? All of my family are in the UK (London) and they rarely go to organised displays, other than family get-together on Guy-Fawkes night that is (Good grief! What would Hargraves make of kids competing to make an effigy of a real person to purposely burn atop a flaming pile of wood? His head would explode at the thought, surely!)

There have always been organised ‘bonfire’ nights (as we used to call them) in the UK as well as families letting off their own crackers so I’d be interested if you have any data you can provide.

On a related topic, a neighbour of mine is a nurse and she told me on Friday they always have injuries over the Queens Birthday weekend with burns to hands, missing fingers etc. I asked her if the people with said injuries received their wounds doing stupid and/or illegal things and she said “always”. So another question is why not have a cop or two stationed at the hospitals over the cracker night to interview and arrest these idiots as they are seen to.

Finally, 175 complaints to Reg Affairs and 205 to the police? How many of these would have been several people ringing up about the one incident, or one person ringing several times wanting to know what action is/has been taken on their initial complaint. I’m not sure, but I bet this is skewing the stats as provided by Hargreaves.

Good on John Hargreaves trying to get them banned…every bloody year other politicians can’t make up their mind. Well let me tell you, if it was their house or their pet that suffered damage or distress, I am sure they will change certainly change their opinion.

To the idiots that want to keep them – grow up, they all look the same and sound the same. Wow, pretty fireworks must really satisfy your boring life…or why don’t you just get a life and do something else with your time. If every other state has them banned, then why should the ACT be different.

Listening to Hargreaves on th radio coming home from work (2CC) he said hé been asked by other Minister’s interstate to ban teh import of crackers to teh ACT as people are buying them in illegally in ionterstate and bringing them to Canberra. This raises a few questions:

a) How is an interstate Minister’s failure to enforce the law in his jurisdiction our problem?
b) If idiots can buy crackers illegally in other states, what makes Hargreaves think it won’t happen here anyway (noting he can’t catch the idiots now)?
c) who will he being hurt by this ban, families that do the right thing or idiots that break the law willingly anyway throughout the year and who will make their own explosives from any number of ingredients you can but at Woolies (and no, I’m not telling you how, that would be both illegal and irresponsible).

BTW: I have both kids and a dog. My dog always comes second to my kids. However, my dog come inside during fireworks and is not bothered by them.

poptop said :

Why can’t pet owners come to grips with bringing their animals in for 2 nights? My dog and cats revel in hanging around inside and appear unaffected by any gunpowder fuelled mayhem.

I love how people throw this out there. My cats are inside 24/7, and my dogs are inside dogs, except of course for toileting and walking.

Unfortunately, they are not deaf, and sound travels.

What the CRIMES article doesn’t mention is complaints to police.

175 is complaints to Reg Affairs.

Complaints to police were more than last year – 205 all up.

So that’s 380 for the weekend.

If we’re going to debate it, let’s do it with the facts.

ant said :

cantanga said :

Shall we ban driving as well?

No, but let’s ban dickheads from driving!

In the ACT it will be the same outcome.

cantanga said :

Shall we ban driving as well?

No, but let’s ban dickheads from driving!

Holden Caulfield said :

It amazes me that so many pro-fireworks people are oblivious to the dickheads potentially stuffing it up for them.

Oh we are aware of them, but we realise they are dickheads, and seeing there will always be dickheads no matter what the laws are we choose to say that the minority is ruining it for the majority. (and assuming population of 347,800 (http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0/) it is only 0.05% of the population). Lets face it there are more dickheads on the road putting HUMAN lives at risk. Shall we ban driving as well?

177 if we include Hargreaves whinge before and after the long weekend. BTW, what is his cat doing outside at night time anyway to be sooooo affected by the fireworks?!?!? I can’t vouch for the legitemency or nature of the other 175 complaints, as our neighbourhood was fine this year, but I did notice that there were far less large explosions and, in “generall” the fireworks stopped around the time of, or shortly after the curfue’s, as appossed to previous years.

Hmmm – A personality from the local radio station has uttered a statement – It must have been scripted.

Pesty said :

In the UK people have gone away from home fireworks and embraced public displays. These are organised so safe and you get 2000% more bang for your buck if you pardon the pun! Its much easier onn the animals too. This came about more from the number of kiddies losing didgits and eyes more than the pet issue.

JB Mark Parton thinks they should be banned!

really? not what it says on his blog… or on twitter. for someone who thinks they should be banned, he seemed to enjoy letting them off.

he did mention that he bagged the crap out of fireworks on the radio, but considering that he had fireworks himself, I wasn’t surprised that he stirred the pot…

Pesty said :

In the UK people have gone away from home fireworks and embraced public displays. These are organised so safe and you get 2000% more bang for your buck if you pardon the pun! Its much easier onn the animals too. This came about more from the number of kiddies losing didgits and eyes more than the pet issue.

And you don’t get to light them youself which is most of the fun.
Public Displays are boring.

In the UK people have gone away from home fireworks and embraced public displays. These are organised so safe and you get 2000% more bang for your buck if you pardon the pun! Its much easier onn the animals too. This came about more from the number of kiddies losing didgits and eyes more than the pet issue.

JB Mark Parton thinks they should be banned!

Overall I think people were quite responsible this year in comparison to previous years.

I’ve heard no late night fireworks. Maybe it was the threat of banning that influenced people?

I wish I could say the same. Although, in some respects, I agree, it was worse last year.

That said, I heard crackers being let off after 4am on Sunday morning and on Sunday night at around 11:40pm we had a handful of guys over the road firing crackers at houses, including ours.

Normally I wouldn’t bother complaining because there is no point. However, having crackers fired at our house was not really acceptable. We called the cops, but knew it was a futile exercise as what can they do? I did laugh a bit when the lady copper on the phone told me “they shouldn’t be letting off fireworks now anyway” … quite, but the reality is obviously very different.

Last year on “cracker” weekend there were fireworks let off in hoppers at a nearby school. The same guys responsible for that also tried to burn down the playground equipment. These kids were all of 13 years old if they were lucky and were easily scared off.

I don’t think for a moment that other weekends don’t have other vandalism and anti-social isuses, but as for johnboy’s statement “those advocating a ban should think carefully about the power of nitrogen chemistry and the possibilities presented by the average supermarket, let alone a hardware store”… It’s such a laughable comparison that I am amazed you even bothered to make it.

For example, if these goodies are so readily available and so potent then why aren’t there fireworks related (or similar) problems every weekend, or every day? It is clear beyond any reasonable doubt that this weekend will continue to have issues until something is done to stop it. That doesn’t have to mean banning fireworks, but it is definitely an option.

I don’t like fireworks in a domestic environment, but I’m happy for people to use them so long as they can do so in the allocated times and with a bit of common sense. It’s the wankers that are shooting crackers at houses, cars and into the very small hours of the morning that I have issues with.

It amazes me that so many pro-fireworks people are oblivious to the dickheads potentially stuffing it up for them.

Nifty, Go to their website and find contact details for an inspector if you’re so worried. I”m sure they don’t scour Canberra discussion fora looking for referrals.

The oxygen-thief over my back fence came out to his dog barking at the fireworks and proceeded to whack it a few times whilst shouting “SHUT UP YA STUPID F’N MUTT!”.

To the RSPCA if you’re listening, forget the fireworks, concentrate on people like him!

I have to say that I love fireworks, and if they were to be banned, there is just one more reason to think that John Hargraves is a tosser and the RSPCA has too much media coverage in this town.
BUT
If they are banned, they are banned. I will simply be one of those sad cases who talks about the good old days when we were allowed to think for ourselves. I think that 90% of people in Canberra (even those like me who have pets) feel the same way.
If they go, they go
Such is life

Johnboy,

Join the army reserve and play with the big fireworks 🙂

I agree that cats should always be secured in a house or cat run every night, but what some people do not seem to understand is that they have much more sensitive hearing than humans. My cat is always inside at night and fireworks always distress him.

I can understand why people enjoy fireworks (I certainly do) but I also believe that people in the ACT are very self focused and should toughen up a bit and go without a few fleeting home comforts for the welfare of others. I haven’t bothered with fireworks since seeing the effects they have on animals a few years ago and don’t miss them too much.

If kiddies ask about the fireworks just take em to Queanbeyan and show em a car up-side-down on fire 🙂

Wallly1972 said :

What about the idea of restricting firework sales to registering community organisations or companies?
I can imagine going down to the local oval where the Scouts or junior footy are putting on a display for a small donation.
This would reduce injuries, vandalism, rubbish and the hours which they’re set off.

It seems to me that that far majority of people behaved responsibly but it is really difficult to stop those who don’t.

It’s the DIY aspect that’s part of the appeal.

I wonder if one can register a fireworks appreciation club….

What about the idea of restricting firework sales to registering community organisations or companies?
I can imagine going down to the local oval where the Scouts or junior footy are putting on a display for a small donation.
This would reduce injuries, vandalism, rubbish and the hours which they’re set off.

It seems to me that that far majority of people behaved responsibly but it is really difficult to stop those who don’t.

I reckon it’s a bit rough to have animals sleeping outside in a Canberra winter, you’d hope the cats and dogs would be in anyway.

cats should be inside at night anyway

Why can’t pet owners come to grips with bringing their animals in for 2 nights? My dog and cats revel in hanging around inside and appear unaffected by any gunpowder fuelled mayhem.

I can cheerfully do without fireworks, but I have a flock of young relatives who come every year with their parents to look at chooks at the Poultry Show and let off crackers. They’ve done no harm.

astrojax said :

only 175? outrageous, someone ought to write a letter!

174 of them were from the RSPCA…

only 175? outrageous, someone ought to write a letter!

I think people are actually paying attention, although you will always get a few idiots – important to note last year there were 510 complaints http://www.ors.act.gov.au/workcover/pdfs/Corporate/media/MR_0806-Fireworks.pdf

While the people using fireworks were clearly better behaved this year, the kids in our suburb have taken to removing letterboxes with a baseball bat – Better ban those pronto!

It did seem better than previous years – maybe the weather?

What bugged me this morning was all the spent fireworks littering the parks and paths.

So can we have our fireworks please?

I hope they catch the people who damaged a vehicle used by the National Brain Injury Foundation to transport children with disability to appointments and stuff. See http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/09/2592729.htm.

I was quite surprised at the lack of idiots setting them off after 11pm, only heard one set of bangs about 11.30 on the Sunday night which lasted about 30 seconds.

Much better than previous years.

“I suspect firework supporters are less likely to be the letter writing sort.”

Shh, you shouldn’t mention anything about public choice theory. It tends to destabilise peoples belief in the democratic process.

I wonder how many of those complaints were investigated.