Animals and Bonfire Night

Traumatised dogs are rushed to vets for emergency treatment; sheep can spontaneously abort; horses gallop into fences; and rabbits have been known to die from the shock.

You can minimise the impact by keeping cats and dogs indoors from the afternoon onwards, and bringing rabbits and guinea pigs inside as well (or at least covering their home with a thick blanket to muffle the noise). Also, please check that hedgehogs and other wild animals have not made a home in your bonfire before you light it.

Animal Aid believes that – for the sake of all animals – fireworks should be sold only to organisers of public events and not to individuals wishing to set them off in their gardens or in the street. A ban on sales to the general public would also prevent the terrible cruelties reported every year of vicious individuals deliberately harming animals with fireworks.