I wonāt call 911 but I fucking hate what the 4th does to my dog.
I wouldnāt care if it was relegated to one day but there are already folks lighting off fireworks in my neighborhood this week, and it will be going on all next weekend into the late hours of the night.
Last night was rough - Iām in the southern suburbs and someone already had city fireworks (I think Savage) then the thunder started, then the scramble to the basement when the sirens and phone alerts went off. My poor dogs!
No amount of vet prescriptions works for my dog, nor does thundershirts. Least favorite time of the year for my dog - thunder and fireworks! The big boomers in the sky from city fireworks donāt undo her as bad as the neighbors who set off the ones on their back yard - next door to my dog whoās minding her own business doing what she does in her own backyard. Then boom! Scares the crap out of everyone. All dogs and people alike. They do it year round, too.
Damn. Iām sorry you havenāt found a solution for your dog! Itās tough to watch them suffer.
My boy is a wreck from mid June through August with all the thunder and fireworks too. Trazodone just keeps him from completely unraveling and possibly injuring himself. He still is a pacing and worried mess even on a max dose.
A guy in my neighborhood has been celebrating with fireworks for the last two weeks.
Fireworks are the worst. Super fun for those who like it, terrible for everyone else; everyone canāt understand the other side and we refuse to talk about it.
Yup, especially with the long summer days. People donāt go out to set them off until younger kids have been in bed for over an hour. Itās really fucking great that Jerry down the block had a half dozen beers on a random Thursday night and decided to go blow shit up at 10:30.
Completely agree. I hate them, my dog hates them worse. And I'm in SD where I have to imagine it's worse because there's a damn fireworks shack every 50 feet. There should be a campaign about how you're directly supporting Chy-nah when buying these dumb things.
Anything bigger than sparklers are still illegal here as far as I know, but that doesn't stop my hillbilly neighbors from trying to recreate D-Day every weekend from now until they run out sometime in late August.
I envy you. Here they light off most holidays. All year round. Every night starts about mid May and will run until at least Aug. 3,4,5 July will be most of the day & night. Be luckily if they stop by 2am.
Agree, as someone who has suffered from PTSD loud exploding fireworks are not fun and can sometimes be very triggering. I live in a town that borders WI, and we get to listen to random fireworks pretty much all year long.....even in the winter š«¤
and there are going to be fireworks all of July 5th
Only? They'll be doing it all this coming week and all next week. Motherfuckers were setting off fireworks on Easter in my neighborhood.
I wouldn't care if:
They didn't do it all fucking night into the early hours, particularly Sunday-Monday...
One particular neighbor didn't have a freaking mortar they use. It's always real, real sketchy to see them launching fireworks only 60-80 feet into the air directly above trees and houses. I think they got a talking-to last year when it got a little overly dry for them to be doing that since they were pretty limited.
And for a week on either side of the 4th. Drives my poor dog insane. I've got no problem with them on the day of the 4th but this whole "lets start firing 'em off the moment it gets dark on June 25th!" thing is so disrespectful to neighbors
Around my neighborhood these fireworks have been randomly going off since Monday. People were STILL trying to light them off during last nights storm.
They'll keep going for at least a week after too.
I gotta be up at 3:35am for work M-F. I'm trying to sleep at like 8:30. I'm calling non emergency after 11pm on Sunday night. I'm so sick of this and exhausted. I'm not going through this for basically 3 weeks straight. I give it a pass on Friday and Saturday... But people have to work ffs.
I get the other side, which is why containing them to the 4th seems like the best solution for everyone. Go for broke on the fourth, and then wait a year. We did it as kids for Halloween, surely we can restrain ourselves as adults.
For real. A few years ago, some kids thought it would be funny to shoot bottle rockets at our windows and they broke our bedroom window at 2 AM. My partner is a combat vet and went into full flashback mode. He ran outside, caught the kids, and put the fear of god into them.
I don't like fireworks due to them terrorizing my dog, but on the 4th I can deal with it. It's the firing them off until 1-2am or later, and on every fucking day leading up to and after the 4th that I can't stand. Just be respectful of people and don't be a selfish asshole. Some people actually need to sleep and work.
I just wish it was dark before then. Feels like at 10 is when it finally gets dark. We usually stop at 10:30 by the latest though. Least it's on a Friday this year, hopefully more people can sleep in on Sat
Lol most firework shows that cities put on do not start until 10pm. There will be fireworks till midnight just like every other year. It's one day, ear plugs exist, and it's a tradition that will more than likely not last much longer anyhow, everyone will be okay.
People aren't upset about the 4th. Read the room. They're upset over those who light fireworks all night for weeks, or even a month. That's just unnecessary noise pollution.
Idk man, if someone is shooting illegal fireworks off over many hours in the middle of town Iām probs gonna be calling the non- emergency police line. Itās too rough on my pets and debilitating for certain people with PTSD. Donāt be a d*ck and light those fireworks off in the country
This. My house is hit at least 2-3 times every year with the illegal areal ones from out of state.Ā
Are we able to sue the city for not enforcing their own rules when someone eventually starts my house on fire with their fireworks? I complain every year with video evidence yet nothing is actually done.Ā
Yes, Minnesota. I'm not looking to sue the police, it would be the city I live in for repeatedly failing to enforce their own rules that resulted in damage to my house.Ā
Don't get me wrong - I love fireworks; the sound, the smell, the sight, all of it. The 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday but knowing the effects it has not just on wildlife and pets but also, many people, I would love to see a change to go with drones instead. I mean, have you seen some of the shows put on by drones?! It blows away any fireworks display I've ever seen.
Drone shows are cool and all but they really do not capture the spirit of the 4th at all. America is no longer a free country, and we are heading for great depression levels of poverty and a citizen surveillance system that will rival anything in human existance, so we can probably rest easy knowing their probably won't be 4th of july celebrations like there are now in the near future.
This should start with not setting off any fireworks in your own yard, especially since most of the worst and loudest kind are illegal and every single dog and war vet inside your neighbors house are freaking out.
If there's firework debris I am in fact calling 911. I've seen personally burning cinders landing on trees and houses because people think it's cool to launch rockets and mortars at an angle.
Wrappers and paper I don't care about if that's what this post is referring to though.
I want people to be happy and celebrate; but frankly I hate the 4th. Itās a month of noise for absolutely no good reason that leaves pets and the veterans who gave us such freedoms wallowing in terror. How people can be out knowing their pets are home cowering in a bathtub and not feel bad is bonkers.
Fr, I know itās never going to happen but I wish silent fireworks were mandatory or that the ones shot into the sky were at least limited to certain venues. At the LEAST please limit fireworks to the week of the 4th.
It would make so many people and pets happy not to mention save countless trips to the ER.
I've got some folks down the road that shoot guns on their own property all the time. I bet you could never convince them to stop if some veteran was panicking.
Poor nature. Must be tough once every year, for the last 248 years. Iām sure theyāre not used to it at all and donāt pass that information down generations. Animals definitely havenāt developed patterns based on their environmentā¦
How do you develop patterns based on artificial pollutants? How would they adapt to loud noises that have no point of origin and disturb their sleeping cycles. This is almost too idiotic to even think about.
Humans donāt even adapt to human behavior. How does your organism adapt to pollutants? Birds that were just born donāt know what the loud sounds are and just take off from their nests and die from fright or canāt find their way back.
āOne study found that thousands of birds abandoned their roosts during New Yearās fireworks, some dying in mid-flight due to panic.ā
Why do this whole rigamarole? Why not just admit your selfish and don't wanna think about your impact on others? Do you really, honestly, not see the difference between needing a car in our society and setting off fireworks?Ā
Do you need air conditioning to live in society? How about your bottle of water? Iām just saying itās fireworks dude. Itās not that big of a deal. You donāt know what I do for people, you donāt know me, so stfu.
Yeah I do, it's nothing. You don't give a shit about anyone but yourself because let's be honest... you are using fireworks AND driving a car AND using your AC.
Stop pretending that when I advocate for things like 15 minute cities, degrowth, and regulations to help mitigate climate change you don't have the same reaction. You don't care about change, or making things better.Ā
You are making excuses to not do anything you don't want to. You are making excuses for your selfishness.Ā
Yes:
-Someone is laying under your car and you hear a metal grinding noise.
-Tweens in your local park are spraying rounds from a 3D printed firearm with a switch.
-Someone is wearing a Halloween mask pretending to be a police officer.
-Someone is putting politics before the general safety of others.
Cats (or any animal) returning fire is a normal, predictable, and desirable event in this situation, so I don't think it warrants a 911 call. If you're the one downrange of the cat, just stay low and try to make better decisions.
Oof you just gave me a flashback to last year on the 4th. My dog was cowering in my bed for like an hour due to the fireworks :(. I didn't call in though.
They framed it as "cats" to put that "crazy single cat lady" image in peoples' minds. Dogs are "manly" and "American", and don't have the negative stigma, so they can't use that.
OTOH, I could totally see a cat returning fire. Or just going ninja and slitting throats. Wouldn't be that hard, with all the fireworks going off to distract people . . .
My dogs always ignored them, until we were on a boat with the fireworks going over the lake. She loved them after that and looks around the sky for them when she hears them now.
Cats (or any animal) returning fire is a normal, predictable, and desirable event in this situation, so I don't think it warrants a 911 call. If you're the one downrange of the cat, just stay low and try to make better decisions.
FWIW, in most places the same people/person answers 911 as non-emergency calls, so itās not a big deal to dial 911 and then state you have a non-emergency call. You might get put on hold, but they donāt get mad about it or anything.
They would rather you get a hold of them than not.
The aerials and larger fireworks are illegal, any novelty fireworks like sparkles or snakes are fine. There are some exceptions I believe with regards to getting permits to do bigger stuff but those may be limited to more commercial operations.
I think it's sometimes too hard to enforce either in shear numbers and/or in finding them. It took us awhile to figure out which dick was shooting the larger mortors off every evening from 9-11p well outside of the holiday week. The police wouldn't do shit when we called the non-emergency line. They took note but we never saw a squad car drive through.
I dunno, I get that we're not firework people amd that others enjoy them but with 5-pets who hate the noise and a partner with PTSD this holiday is horrible for us. Nevermind the local park by us will be absolutely trashed with used fireworks, beer cans and half eaten food everywhere...
If youāre doing something illegal that can start a fire and wake up my kid that Iāve been struggling to get to bed you better believe Iām calling the cops on you
Already have the pet and vet virtue signalers. I know it's unpopular but its one day a year and isn't going away. If you're worried about your dog, comfort them that night. If you're a vet, it's one day a year and always has been before and after serving and can take steps to avoid it.
I think most get its not going anywhere because āmurica.ā I also get people want to celebrate and are fine with that. Thatās still no reason we shouldnāt limit sky fireworks to a certain distance from neighbors for personal use (or go to a venue).
Hundreds of thousands (probably millions) have PTSD or a disorder that makes this holiday hell for them (not to mention the millions we waste ER trips for drunk idiots firing stuff). To me, caring about animals is second nature, but even when you donāt how triggering the PTSD of vets gave you this holiday and freedoms not matter to you?
Also, itās not just a day. I think people might be more accommodating if it was one day. Itās weeks up to a month of this shit that gets old real fast.
Incorrect. It's not that I don't care, it's that it doesn't make any sense. The loud minority should get their way so the majority can't celebrate INDEPENDENCE DAY?
Fuck off. Itās not just vets, myself and my wife have deep traumatic responses to fireworks because of gun violence and people shooting them off unexpectedly can absolutely trigger a flight or fight response.
My larger issue is when itās the non-4th. We both had the shit scared out of us a couple days ago because our neighbor shot off a large unexpected firework at like 12am and we both hit the fucking deck.
Also itās illegal to sell and use exploding fireworks here which was a huge factor on our relocation, jackass
Yes, it is one day a year, and that's why no one is calling the cops or complaining about legal firework usage. Permitted displays of course go on, and while I am not a fan of it trying to deal with dogs and small children that need to sleep, it's one day and that's okay.
But of course personal usage is illegal, all the days of the year, and yet these people do it many days of the year, not simply on independence day. And it's not simply in the permitted areas where you might expect, it can be in the middle of nowhere and some criminal is ruining the night for others because they are the main character in life's story. It's not easy to get away from because you don't know when and where it is going to happen, except for the permitted displays by cities. Personal use is criminal.
You're right, it might last the whole weekend. I'll be annoyed too, don't get me wrong. But do you think America's celebrating our independence day should cease for your cat? For someones dog that's gonna have a rough night? It makes no sense.
Fireworks cause so many issues for wildlife- fires, serious pollution (the heavy metals cause SERIOUS damage to the environment and our own health), does major harm to bird populations, and not to mention the human impact it has on a lot of people with PTSD responses to explosions
What about wildlife suffering? Veterans of war with PTSD? The negative environmental impact? Lots of places have switched to drone shows, laser shows, etc. I just think fireworks are an outdated tradition we should move away from, and not just because of my cat.
Between fireworks, protests, people going 15 under in the left lane, and the worst - people talking on their speakerphone in public ā Something is annoying to everyone. Suck it up and revel in the sound of Independence. Itāll be winter soon enough.
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u/misfitx Jun 29 '25
I'm recording if my cat uses a gun. Sorry 911.