It's All Fun & Games until...

Yesterday we celebrated Queen Victoria's birthday in Canada. Every year, the last Monday before May 24th is a statutory holiday. The May 2-4 weekend.


It's also the unofficial weekend we recognize as the kick-off to the summer season.


We celebrate this weekend in various ways. There's a slow-moving exodus along every major highway in the country as people get back to nature, returning to open up their cottages. We have our barbeques heating up for get-togethers, we flock to garden centers with a list in hand of perrenials, annuals and garden ornaments as we mentally prepare our backs and knees for the hours we'll put in beautifying our gardens.


We celebrate with a plethora of pyrotechnics...fireworks!!


Most cities put on a display on the holiday Monday. Many individual communities gather in local parks to hold their own mini-displays. In backyards, in shopping-mall parking lots or if you're a group of teenagers, on the street after 1:00a.m.


Go into any corner store at this time of year and there's a bevy of all the newest fireworks to choose from-The Eliminator Shell, The Wheel, Beast of Artillary, Dominator Candle, Triple Whistling Bottle Rockets, Molatov Cocktail. The choice is endless and seldom requires age verification.


The chemicals used to make us 'oh' and 'ah' are hardly environmentally friendly. Barium, used to produce the brilliant green colors is poisonous and radioactive. Copper compounds used to produce blue colors, contain dioxin, which has been linked to cancer. Cadmium, lithium, antimony, rubidium, strontium, lead and potassium nitrate are used to produce different effects, even though they can cause a host of respiratory and other health problems. Couple this with the really big displays put on by the cities usually being set off over or close to a body of water, where all the dusts and contaminants fall, contributing to our water contamination.


Not to mention the amount of refuse left at any location where people gather in large groups or the toll on the local bird and wildlife population.


I'm always put off when I see a dog brought along to these displays. The crowds of revellers and the brilliant colours and designs of pyrotechnics may appeal to the child in us all but they DON'T appeal to my dog or any dog I know of for that matter.


The sound alone is enough to put the most laid-back dog on alert. Their noses being more sensitive than ours, pick up the scent of the chemicals emanating from these creations... these 'terrors in the sky.' They register them as foreign and unfriendly.


Last year, on this holiday, I received a frantic phone call from a neighbour. There were some teenagers passing by her house who stopped long enough to let off a few firecrackers. Her dog was in the fenced-backyard at the time. It panicked at the noise and somehow escaped.
We searched for hours. The next morning, she received a call from Animal Control. Her dog was found on Lakeshore Blvd. It had been hit by a car as it tried to cross the busy street.


I have seen dogs quivering in their paws, panting and displaying any number of stress signals when they are within ear-shot of our celebratory fireworks. Some seek out refuge in the basement, a closet or under a blanket. If a dog is at all sensitive, as with thunderstorms, it's intolerance will grow as it ages.

Dogs can become withdrawn for days after-refusing to go outside after dark, exhibiting apprehension when they come across a sparkler left in the grass at the park the next day.

As far as I'm concerned there should be a ban on selling fireworks to the public. Yes, even the innocent sparklers. Not so innocent when lit and slid into someones shirt.


It's all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked (or burned) out.