Summary
A baby red panda named Roxie at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland died from “stress caused by fireworks” after choking on her vomit, just days after her mother’s sudden death.
The incident, occurring around the U.K.’s Bonfire Night celebrations, has led to renewed calls for stricter fireworks regulations.
A petition with over a million signatures urging restrictions on public fireworks sales was submitted to the U.K. government.
Edinburgh recently implemented limited fireworks control zones, but animal welfare advocates argue for broader measures to prevent similar tragedies.
This is just sensational reporting. From the comments, it looks like it is working. Usesome of the critical thinking we ask trump supporters to use. Medical science isn’t at the point that it can know which source of stress caused a thing. And in this case the baby had also lost it’s mother, a source of comfort. And read the whole article. “We know that fireworks can cause stress to other animals in the zoo and we cannot rule out that they may have contributed to the untimely death of Roxie’s mother Ginger, just five days’ earlier.”
They don’t even know what killed the mother.
I am sure the fireworks were a contributing factor, but sounds like the baby was already in a weakened state.
We collectively need to get over this concept that media is accurately representing the truth with intent to inform. Media is a business. It’s intent is to make money. And with lot’s of competitors, it can only survive by making the stories it reports more sensational than they are (cause their competitors are doing it) to get the clicks. Some are better than others, but they all have to do it to survive.
You’re correct that people should apply critical thought, and using a cute baby animal for this message is manipulative and people should be aware of that, but it doesn’t make the message any less important. There are many reasons to ban them. They look somewhat pretty, but you can go to a show done by professionals that’ll be more impressive.
Fireworks not only cause stress for animals, but also humans. (A pet peeve of mine is memorial day/Veterans day fireworks shows. In what world is throwing explosives around good for former soldiers?) They are a not insignificant cause of fires. They’re just generally harmful and do very little good. We don’t need them.
If spreading a manipulative article works to change people’s minds towards something better, it’s probably worth it. You can be sure other people are doing it against good.
Hello JD Vance. If you need deception to change people’s minds, maybe it’s you who is wrong.
Nope. If you just lay down and let the bad guys win because you refuse to fight, that isn’t the moral option. Be honest and use reason where it’s valuable, but don’t refuse to use emotions when that’s useful too. People with bad intention will be using it and refusing to play the game is only empowering them.
Anger is a much more useful emotion than sadness.
I believe compassion to be more constructive, but fear and anger are definitely more motivating. All emotions are sometimes useful and always an opportunity for manipulation, for better or worse, that people should be aware of.
I used to think fireworks were fun, but after getting a dog that is terrified of them, you start noticing all the little things.
People shoot then off randomly throughout the year. They leave behind garbage waste. Animals and even some humans seem to get PTSD from them.
I’m in favor of very limited fireworks in specific areas.
I’m a veteran and used to get worked up by them. It took a few years but I mostly got over it because they were predictable, the city put out notices as well as the local baseball team. And then they were legalized for a specific time frame for everybody. Any random asshole could buy and shoot off fireworks during a 3 day window.
Cool, I can hang with that. But then they shoot them off randomly for the 2 weeks surrounding the weekend that they’re allowed. That I can’t hang with. Especially during the day. Why the fuck are you shooting them off during the day anyways?!? You can’t see it! The thing that pisses me off the most? The motherfuckers shooting shit off at random times and days? Those assholes would happily suck my dick if I told them I’m a veteran and told them to do so. But then they’d fire off more fireworks to celebrate doing so.
Fireworks fucking suck & it’s exactly the assholes you expect who promote/buy/use them.
Yeah if man made noise is a problem for a species maybe don’t house them in the FUCKING CITY…
Here’s Another thought too. Zoos are notorious for animal cruelty issues. How about not have animals locked up cruelly for our entertainment.
😭
So susceptible to stres. Zoos often lack enough cover and “hide away” spots for them. Poor thing
I find it immensely infuriating that the article’s byline shows they are reporting from ‘London’ when in fact this happened not just in a different city, Edinburgh, but in a completely different country, Scotland.
Sad about the pandas, there are far too many people that simply can’t be trusted with fireworks. Limiting it to a single night in dedicated display venues run by licensed organisations wouldn’t remove the noise entirely, but it would reduce the frequency and would probably help all animals.
Hey, if your country is overrun by red panda infestations, you know exactly what to do!
Die from cuteness overload?
No! Fireworks! 🎇🎆🎇🎇🎆. Just pop a whole bunch and your panda problems would be history. C’mon man 😂. We can save the world! From red pandas
Plz no. We are so cute. 🥺
but… I don’t want to save the world from red pandas.
I want to leave, and dying from cuteness overload sounds like not such a bad way to go.
Let me tell you the story of the great Knocrates. He was a Greek philosophy major from ancient UCLA. He really liked cute things and one day he was between two of the most beautiful tits women kind had ever grown. Look the point is that you probably don’t want cute 🥺🥰. It doesn’t last. Anyway you want Hot 🥵🔥🥵. You want 🔥!
You don’t hear about a great red panda browser. But you hear about Firefox a lot! See what I mean? So fireworks 🎆🎇🎇 it is!
A lot of people in the comment here are being pretty obtuse, I’m doubtful many are even from the UK and understand the scale of celebrations with Guy Fawks and Divali being so close together this year
Not even just that. I can’t speak for Edinburgh, but in the area I live in in Glasgow we’ve had random fireworks go off during the day for weeks leading up to Guy Fawkes. One big explosion every now and then. One day, still bright out, I was walking home and almost hit the deck because one went off so close to me out of nowhere.
After Guy Fawkes it has been less frequent, but still happens, at very odd times. You can even check news and see that it’s been an issue for a while. E.g.: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0j87zneq4vo
It stresses me out a bit, and I spend most of my time in my own home, with decent soundproofing. And I’m not a sensitive endangered animal.
We still have idiots here where I live in SE London letting off fireworks, last night was some. This last week or so my autoimmune illnesses are flaring up again so lot of pain and unwell, few days ago idiots let off more fireworks so loud I had to cover ears and take strong painkillers to try cope with effects of explosions :o(
Hopefully no more fireworks, still recovering, hands, arms, back, chest and left leg still in pain with, hope will get better soon :o(
I’m not British but have been living here over a decade and I still notice how frequently fireworks go off a week leading up to any of the big nights and for a several days after. Other places I’ve been in Europe very much do fireworks on new years eve only, and just a small handful of teenagers might be playing with fireworks a few days early, or playing with the leftovers the next day.
"Veterinary experts at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland announced on Wednesday that a 3-month-old panda named Roxie died “due to stress caused by fireworks being let off across the city centre.”
Go on guys teach those no good experts how to do their jobs!
I feel the need to put the /s tag seeing the comments in this topic.
We’re super cute, so you’d expect that people would want to keep us around, but our existence is still endangered. Please don’t scare us to death.
Signed:
- A fuzzy red panda
RIP little baby. I always feel guilty when watching fireworks…
Only my daughter goes to fireworks out of all my kids. I always make sure to remind her and everyone else we are with that even though they are enjoyable they distress the fuck out of wildlife and result in many deaths. Yes, they’re cool AF but think if aliens came here tomorrow. It’s no different than us going WTF at people firing AKs into the sky at a wedding. Only difference is the pretty colours and the method of firing. We are such a destructive species.
A well-made and safely launched firework has a way lower chance of returning to earth than a 7.62 bullet.
The concern has never been a casing falling to earth. Have you heard how loud they are? Do you know how stressing that is to animals? Also have you witnessed the thick cloud at the end of the show where you are literally inhaling the byproduct of hours of gunpowder going off?
I love fireworks but goddamn they aren’t smart.
While I’m not entirely sure I agree with these points, I do understand them. I only meant to convey that firing guns into the air is on another level of stupid compared to fireworks.
So… Where do they go? Space?
Combustion creates gas, or did you forget elementary school science?
I’m glad to hear these little red dudes aren’t extinct yet, tbh.
Me too.
Man, people really do love their fireworks… Noise, light and pollution, Yay!
I wonder how many of you guys complain about cars for the same reasons…
Don’t forget the fires and injuries!
People can get really defensive and hostile about fireworks and I’ve never really understood it.
I quit smoking at the beginning of this summer because it’s a terrible habit that’s inconsiderate to others at best(and bad for me too). So I quit. The thing is I actually liked smoking…Nicotine is something else(I used nicotine gum for anyone wondering)
So if I can accept that about smoking, why is it so hard for folks to understand that fireworks, while enjoyable, can have detrimental effects to other living creatures nearby? Some of whom might be people? It’s just really strange to me.
Over here, it’s pretty rare to have a car that causes a lot of noise.
A few days ago, there was a car crossing me that was quieter than my cycle’s hub. And it was an ICE.
Only the “sports” cars and bikes tend to be loud and thanks to petroleum prices (and the vehicle’s price itself) are much less in number.But loudspeakers and fireworks, I cannot bear.
Air pollution? Mine is a smoker’s country. People like me are lucky not to be handed the Darwin award.
Coming to answer after being woken up by a neighbour’s after-party noise, after a few hours of inadequate sleep caused due to noise from said party. And it’s half past ten. On top of that, I have had a bad sleep for the past 2 weeks due to continuous bombardment (no, that’s just Diwali) for the past 2 weeks.
And even from the video, you may notice - It’s less about cars, but that people are loud:
- People like car go vroom vroom
- People like farting motorcycles and most of them over here, buy non-farting motorbikes and get them modified to get them to fart. Same for farting cars. Only a few cars that fart by default. Mist of the farters are modded.
- The horn problem is also more about people and less about traffic necessity. On top of that, the sound-proof cabins make it hard for car drivers to hear cycle bells. I recently got a near miss from that.
- And guess what, that area also gets loud when there’s a party
- Tire noise, I’d rather have that. How else would I know when there is a car behind me, before they blast the horn? In fact, me detecting the car first, looking back to see their lane and giving way, has prevented a lot of potential horns. But yes, if the low sound roads and the porous roads that help in rainwater infiltration (causing groundwater replenishment and reducing sinkhole probability) are the same, then I would definitely be for it.
Air pollution:
Taken from 9:13 in the video.- Roads have been pretty breathable [1] ever since Catalytic converters and I have been mostly fine, breathing heavily while running over 35.
- There is another kind of farters. The vehicles who don’t get proper maintenance and start puffing white smoke, filling the road air with it, making me have to take a stop or hastily overtake them.
There is just one case, where I would look differently and that is the case of tuk-tuks and mopeds, which turns out to be out of necessity and lack of money. Because those have to be cheap, to cater to the requirement of the target customer, reduced noise comes lower in the list of priorities.
at least as long as you are only considering the vehicle smoke and not the smoke coming out of smouldering sticks in the rider’s/driver’s mouths ↩︎
Says it was the “fireworks causing stress” that killed it not imprisoning a wild animal in a foreign environment. I am having a hard time blaming the fireworks here.
Fireworks and red pandas have both existed at the same time for hundreds of years. Red pandas first discovered in 1825 by a French zoologist. One would assume it didn’t just blink into existence (however, I can’t prove it). Fireworks came about around 200 BC.
One would presume that there’s been a lot of overlap.
It’s possible the fireworks exacerbated a problem but it’s not the root cause.
