An animal welfare group is to urge the government to impose strict legislation on the sale of fireworks.
The Wet Nose Animal Rescue centre said on Wednesday it will send a letter to President Thabo Mbeki asking him to intervene.
”The effects of fireworks use on humans, animals and the environment is government’s responsibility,” chairperson Gerda Kruger said.
The situation has become ”untenable”.
Over the festive season, 310 emergency calls relating to animals and fireworks were received on December 30 and 31 alone.
”Two hundred and forty-seven fireworks-related injuries were reported over a very short period this past festive season,” Kruger said.
A Dobermann dog died of suffocation when it became tightly wedged in burglar bars while trying to escape fireworks in Empangeni on New Year’s morning.
The eight-year-old dog chewed its way through a wooden window frame and smashed the glass in its frantic attempts to get inside the house of its owners — who were holidaying in Durban, said Empangeni Society for the Prevention of for Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) spokesperson Cheryl Whittaker last week.
The Dobermann was just one of several four-legged victims of fireworks over the New Year, Whittaker said, urging the government to reintroduce anti-fireworks legislation.
”It’s time to ban fireworks. Over Diwali, one person lost 17 breeding parrots. They all just died from shock.”
Whittaker said revellers even tossed fireworks at a patrolling SPCA vehicle on New Year’s Eve.
At the moment, municipalities are allowed to make their own rules on fireworks.
In Johannesburg, residents face a R1 000 fine for letting off firecrackers where animals are present. They were allowed to discharge fireworks only between 7pm and 10pm on New Year’s Eve.
However, according to National SPCA spokesperson Christine Kuch fireworks ”sounding like bombs” were often set off outside these times. — Sapa