Banff ditches big-bang Canada Day fireworks to protect wildlife

The Globe and Mail:

Canada Day fireworks in Banff this weekend went off without a bang.

The town switched to a pyrotechnics display like you might see at a rock concert over fireworks for its holiday celebrations going forward, so as not to terrify the thousands of animals, wild and domestic, that live in the area.

Beyond your whimpering canine, there’s evidence that traditional fireworks displays aren’t good for animals. Birds tend to “flee en masse” from them; the 2010 New Year’s celebration in Beebe, Ark., saw 5,000 blackbirds drop out of the sky, pelting residents in the head. Deer fling themselves into roads and cars. Horses have heart attacks and keel over. Shelters in the United States say the day after Independence Day is the busiest day for them because of all the runaway dogs, terrified and confused by the noise.

Fireworks were banned in my little town this year, partially for noise reasons but also because of a fire hazard concern (our town is surrounded by extremely dry forests). Tomorrow is the Fourth of July in the US – will you or your community use the “low-noise fireworks” (which I had never heard of before)? These don’t exactly seem like “low noise” to me.