Reminder! Bonfire Night!

[Mr. Stee]

I don't know about the rest of the US, but herein wisconsin the laws prevent the use of all but low grade grounddisplays. Anything that jumps, flies, explodes, or shoots isprohibited in Wisconsin. Now you have to remember that eachstate in the US has different laws when it comes to fireworks (its nota federal law so the states govern the usage individually).Illinios and Indiana I know are a little more relaxed in theprohibiting.

To tell you what July 4th is like in wisconsin, it is alot like afestival of sorts. There are parades and special events alongthe lake (michigan) and at night, families gather in back yards or atthe beach to have cookouts while they watch the town sponsored airialdisplays. My parents live in the country and so we get alicense to put on our own display. If you live in the countryand have insurance, you can submit a form to the town to get a one daypermit to fire off anything. I am one of the lighters, and Ican tell you, we take our job seriously.

Of course, when their is a law, someone is going to break it.We do have small bands of hoodlums with packets of illegal bangers androckets doing stupid things with them. But the police in thisarea are very harsh and they have extra officers out on this night, sothe misfits are kept to a minimum and quite often get caught if theycontinue for more than a half hour. Its not like they arereally bad with them (no fireworks in mail slots here). Theworse then that happens on a regular occasion is that many a roadsidemail box meets an untimely end when an exploding one is put in it thenthey drive off. Bottle rocket fights are another classic, butthat just involves two stupid kids lighting and pointing bottle rocketsat each other from around thirty feet. The only ones who gethurt are the trouble makers.

I guess what I am getting at is the 4th of july in lower wisconsin hereis a fun day with only a few pranksters that the adults grumble about,but are not very worried about.

James

 

[LuvaBun]

Gilfly wrote:

Some1 was asking where the police are on Guy Fawkes Night?well in my area this year they are having to escort the fire brigade toany calls they might get tonight because they usually get attacked byneds with fireworks or stones.

My brother used to be a fireman, and this was the busiest night of theyear - not only bonfires getting out of control, but deliberate arsonattacks etc. He said they used to get attacked when attendingfires, mainly by kids around 12 or 13 years old :?.

You know what I find really incredible? That we have all kinds ofrestrictions to protect us from terrorism, and yet anyone can go outand buy fireworks, which, to all intent and purposes, are minibombs!! Northern Ireland doesn't allow fireworks, because ofall the troubles they had there with bombings.

Jan

ps - Thanks for your kind thoughts and prayers, Carolyn :hug:

 

[Gilfly]

Mr. stee that sounds like good practice inWisconsin. Thats the way it should be here. But i can imagine it wouldbe quite difficult to put through new legislation here and i doubt itwould be policed here very well. As someone else said the police hereare useless. Law and order doesn't exist in this counrty anymore.EVERYTHING needs reforming, from smoking laws (which is changing inScotland ), policing, anti-social behaviour,immigration andasylum, schools- in particular ,school meals which is a bigthing over here at the moment. I could go on and on ! Basically i don'tthink our politicians will do anything about any of our problems, leastof all fireworks...hopefully i will be proven wrong.

Didn't meant to go off on one... but hearing how shocked some ofyou Americans were at just Bonfire Night makes me think evenmore about how the country used to be (possibly the way some of youstill think of it). It ain't like that anymore.

-Gillian

Here is a pretty pic to lighten the mood!it's Edinburgh Castle

PS here is an good link to Bonfire Night stuff
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/gunpowder_hutton_01.shtml

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

:growl:Fireworks going of already here. It's going to be a long night.

 

[AnnaS]

Fireworks can scare children as well as animalsand they should not be allowed to go on late in the night. People needto sleep too. I am not even talking about how dangerous it can be.

 

[Carolyn]

How are our Dear Friends in England today?

:England:

Did everyone stay safe and protected? How are my furry and feathered friends in your care?

I thought about you guys so much yesterday. I was very aware of thetime it was in your country when I'd look at the clock and I'd bow inprayer everytime I did.

Jan, you are SO RIGHT about the terrorist comment. That is exactly howit sounds. It sounds like it gives carte blanche to all the psychos toact out their sick fantasies. I worry about people that hurt animals.How they could be so cold as to hurt a creature that can't defenditself or stand up for itself is beyond me. They usually end up beingserial killers hardcore criminals.

Gillian, Didn't know about the other holiday that you spoke of Guy Fawkes. What a shame.

:no:

I can't believe the government allows that to go on without stricterlaws. Your police department sure did do a good job of catching theterrorists that blew up the bus a few months back. If they can buckledown on that, I guess I just don't understand why they don't seeBonfire Night as Jan said - a night for terriorism to be accepted.

:dunno:

I don't think I'll ever really understand politicians - American or otherwise.

* * * * * * *

Gillian,

Much like Mr. Stee explained, The 4th of July isn't a holiday to beconcerned about with people getting crazy. More mischief would happenon Halloween than any other holiday, I believe. That said, if someone'scaught doing something, they will go to jail. The cops put double theamount of people on for all holidays. With the 4th of July, the policeare more concerned about drunk drivers than anything else.

In my state, it was just passed that people could light off low-gradefireworks. Inevitably, the next day on the news, you hear about someyoung teenager that blew a finger off playing with them, but that's it.Never have I even thought about pets being in danger - other than thembeing scared - or people aiming fireworks at each other.

The 4th of July is all about having big picnics, cookouts with friendsand family, draping everything with Red, White, and Blue, and justrelaxing and having a good time enjoying those closest to you. It's agreat time of year, weatherwise, it kicks off our Summer Vacationseason, we have parades, American Flags are everywhere, and the towns,cities and states usually always host a beautiful display of fireworksso that everyone can go enjoy. It's a great time of the year for peopleto visit the USA. There are plenty of things to do for entertainment.

The Best I've ever seen were in New York City and Boston where they hadthe fireworks going off with all of our Patriotic songs. All you'd haveto do is tune into a radio station, grab a lawn chair, sit back withyour friends and watch the Show. New York shoots them off fromManhattan and over the water so that the people in Brooklyn Heightsreally get a fantastic view of them from the promenade. In Boston, TheBoston Pops plays their music and people gather all day to listen toit, picnic, and get a good spot for the 9:00 fireworks show. Thishappens all around the country.

(You should've seen the gorgeous fireworks that were going off when NewYork was trying to choose between who they were going to allow sponsorthem. :shock: Gorgeous. That went on months before the 4th actually.)

* * * * * * *

As I said, I truly hope all is well with My British Friends, and that this nightmare is over.

:kiss:



-Carolyn

 

[Boricua_bunny]

Is everybody okay over there? I can't believethey don't have tighter restrictions on buying fireworks! It justinfuriates me! Here in Massachusetts, it is illegal tobuy, sell, or be in possession of any type of fireworks. But around 4thof July, people go to nearby states to buy them and bring back here!And the cops don't do anything! Once again, I hope every one of ourfriends in the U.K., human and furry, is safe.

~Josh

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

Carolyn you are so sweet,:hug: thanks for praying for us.

My girls are ok, all lockedup last night and didn'tseem any worse off this morning for the fireworks.I hopeeveryones elses animals are ok.ray:

 

[LuvaBun]

Hi Carolyn and Boricua bunnythanks forasking. We made it through OK here, apart from having two very unhappybunnies, because they weren't allowed outside yesterday.

Things started about 4 pm here, and went on 'til after 1 am, which wasreally annoying. This morning I have had to pick up firework debris offthe garden - rocket sticks, burned paper etc, incase Pernod and Perrydecide to eat them. The air still smells of smoke and sulpher.

Haven't seen anything about fires/injuries yet, but it usually takes afew days to come through. On the news before, it said that there hadn'tbeen any safety campaigns this year warning about the dangers offireworks, 'cos the government needed to cut the budget, and decidedfirework safety was not an important issue -:disgust:yeah,right!

Jan

 

[Linz_1987]

The rabbits and guinea pigs werent bothered atall. My dog was soo scared though. There are still some fireworks goingoff tonight which is really annoying! Bonfire night is over!

I hope everybody elses animals are ok! I feel sorry for homeless dogsetc who have no comfort of the world let alone with fireworks going off

 

[shadow10978]

Bonfire night reminds me of a cross betweenhalloween and the forth of july. It is horrid what some people will doto animals, personally I think that anyone that can do something likethat to a poor defenceless creature should have the same thing done tothem....

As for fireworks and such late at night, in the town i used to live inon the 3rd of July we would have a Pots and Pans Parade which consistsof a firework display at 11:30pm then at midnight on the dot we have aparade that involves every fire truck from the surrounding 10+ towns,there are also homemade floats and idiots....ooops I mean peoplebanging pots and pans up the street for about an hour. Its alot of fun,but if you happen to live right on the main street it really stinks.Specially if you have a child like mine. My youngest is very sesitiveto noise and all that is just to much for the poor kid.

 

[ChinaBun]

Interesting thread!

In China there are lots of fireworks set off at Chinese New Year's. I'malways at home in the US during this time, so I haven't actually heardhow loud it is at that time, but I've been told about it. I'll have toask whoever is taking care of my rabbit to cover her cage when it's theloudest and give her lots of TLC.

Nancy

 

[DaisyNBuster]

Everything is okay over here too. I was quitesurprised at how okay the rabbits were. I expected them to be scared todeath, some of the fireworks even vibrated the house :shock:!! I was sodreading bonfire night, every time a loud on went off I went over tothem to see how they was.

I'm glad its over, but no doubt they'll still be going off tonight too, they were yesterday.

Vickie

 

[samandshawn]

I hope everyones buns and other pets are all safe and not too scared

 

[Linz_1987]

It seems to have all stopped here now, but the terrible wait for Christmas and the New Year is ahead of us all.

They really should ban fireworks! :XIts weird how smallanimals like rabbits dont flinch for fireworks, where as most dogswould run a mile.

I was sitting on the sofa with my Border Collie sitting on my lap!Squashing me to death because she was so scared. She was shaking andeverything

She even turned her nose up to her favourite biscuit and i have never known her to ever do that before.

Its her second year of experiencing fireworks and its plain to see sheis no fan of them and never will be. It even came to thepoint that she was too scared to go out into the garden at all thatnight and we ended up having a wet puddle on the kitchen floor in themorning. I just feel so sorry for them all.

 

[AnnaS]

poor doggy

 

[Gilfly]

Sami wasn't to bad.Only once did she get a bigfright. 3 really loud fireworks went off pretty much right outside thehouse and she darted round her cage and then dived into her bolt holeand stayed in there for a good while. Gave her a big cuddle and thenturned the TV up even louder.

I forgot about New Year Linz_1987....

-Gillian