Just ban the fireworks!. That's the call.. once again.. from animal rights activist Nalini Dial.., following Government's announcement ..that only SILENT fireworks will be permitted this Independence Day.
Meanwhile, the Trinidad & Tobago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.. is urging the state to take it a step further.. replacing fireworks entirely.. with modern light displays.
00:00A step in the right direction, but not quite far enough.
00:05This is the view of animal rights activists in response to government's announcement to only allow members of the public to use silent fireworks this Independence Day.
00:15First of all, there's nothing really like silent fireworks. It may be silent to us, human beings, because our hearing is not as sensitive as the animals. But the dogs still do hear the silent fireworks. So it's not all that silent.
00:38Ms. Dial further notes that fireworks pose risks not only to animals, but also to people and property.
00:46Well, we've had the instances where, you know, houses burned down and people lost things and so on. But not only that, every year, but it's maybe not carried in the news.
00:58But there are people injuring themselves, you know, their hands and so on get, you know, injured from setting out the fireworks and they go to the hospitals for treatment.
01:11So it is a very unsafe thing. A lot of people using this to around children. Is it in a controlled situation? Is somebody there, an expert in, you know, setting it off and, you know, all the dangers are related to it?
01:30It looks like fun, but it's a serious thing.
01:33She's calling on the government to go the full distance and implement an outright ban. Given that every year, members of the public set off the explosives without securing the requisite permits.
01:45And I call the police every year. I have to call the police. And they can't come. They will tell you flat. It's all over. They don't have police to come out. They don't have a vehicle. It can't be controlled.
01:59It can't be controlled. And that is why we have been saying if you can't control it, then you need to ban it because people are not obeying the law and the police can't enforce the law. So what is the use of the law?
02:16The Trinidad and Tobago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is stressing that fireworks should only be used in controlled official settings.
02:25What we have actually been calling for over the years is to remove the handling of fireworks by the public and, you know, so that take the fireworks out of the hands of the public and just retain fireworks for public displays that should be silent fireworks or hopefully go in the direction of, you know, light displays and so on.
02:53We don't think they can be controlled in the hands of the public. We recognize that people do like firework displays or light shows and in many countries they're going in the direction of light shows and we have a lot of talented people who are capable of doing wonderful modern light shows.
03:13So we really, you know, would encourage the government to go to go in that direction rather than to even continue with with fireworks displays.
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