Silvie Pomicter

Chinchilla, Pa.

Last summer when the fireworks started on the Fourth of July, I watched a local terrified deer run onto the road and get killed by a car. Many pets, wildlife and even our veterans are traumatized by fireworks, and common fireworks release lead, copper and other toxic metals into the air.

Companion animals have anxiety, fear and panic attacks, and animal shelters report terrified pets run away and sometimes jump fences to get away from these blasts, and become disoriented, lost and sometimes die.

Fireworks cause wild animals raising babies to abandon their dens in fear.

They cause birds to have panic attacks at night causing more deaths.

Bees become so disoriented and they won’t go back in their hives.

Vets suffer from PTSD.

Some cities like Salt Lake City and Lake Tahoe are opting for drone light shows instead of fireworks, citing the impact traditional pyrotechnics have on the environment and substituting loud, bombastic rockets with quieter environmentally friendly drones.

Let’s replace these trauma inducing blasts which cause animals and vets to cower in fear, and sometimes die.

Ask your local city, township, county officials to substitute fireworks with drone light shows, ones that won’t cause harm to others.