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.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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    11 minutes ago

    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.

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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        39 minutes ago

        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

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          38 minutes ago

          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.

          • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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            28 minutes ago

            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!

  • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
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    7 hours ago

    So the zoo loses 2 red pandas in a couple days and instead of investigating the conditions of their care, they blame it on the public being loud?

    There are easy ways to protect your pets from fireworks noise so this stinks of scapegoating for their own terrible care.

  • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I’m dubious. Mom dies suddenly, then baby dies suddenly after choking on it’s own vomit. Yeah, no, let’s blame the fireworks. Surely, nothing else could be the cause of Red Panda deaths at this zoo.

    • Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 hours ago

      I had a whole thing earlier but was mistaken, the baby was 3 months old not a newborn. Either way, I still don’t doubt that fireworks could easily stress out a very young animal and be the tipping point of their health.

      I’m not sure what could motivate them to make a grand conspiracy against fireworks, rather than the more likely result of them being exhausted and frustrated caretakers who, like any pet owner, probably spent that evening trying to calm the panda down only to watch it panic until it died. Stress vomiting isn’t really rare for animals on the 4th of July. It’s just the extreme end of stress.

      • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        I’m not saying that it’s a conspiracy against fireworks, but possibly a problem with the habitat, food, or something else that would cause big issues for the zoo if discovered. The fireworks were convenient. I have zero evidence for this other than the fact that a lot of zoos are complete cesspools, and so I typically don’t trust “suddenly died” followed three days later by another “suddenly died” regardless of how many fireworks were launched off.

        Also, there is this line:

        Roxie had access to her den but the frightening noises seem to have been too much for her.

        Seems like the zoo just left a weak animal to suffer instead of taking precautions to assure that the panda was placed in a safe location. It makes me doubt that anyone was even there, and that the zookeepers returned the following day to a dead red panda and tried to cover it up.

        • Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 hours ago

          That’s fair, I definitely jumped to the “they wanna take away fireworks” conspiracy on my end, too much arguing on the Internet for me this week >.<

          I do hope they look into it. I just know how freaked out my pets have been in the past, inconsolable at times, so the fireworks being a real factor wouldn’t surprise me. I’d hope they would have meds to help calm the animals, but I wonder if they were too young for them, or had a dosage issue.

    • warm@kbin.earth
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      6 hours ago

      Whether or not it was the direct cause in this case, fireworks cause a lot of animals a lot of stress and deaths do come from it.

      I don’t see why anyone needs to be able to buy explosives to use at home, firework shows should be organised in set locations and should use low noise fireworks as much as possible.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    6 hours ago

    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…

    • ulterno@programming.dev
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      36 minutes ago

      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.

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Why can’t they put them in a sound safe zone till the fireworks dissipate? This zoo is incompetent and should be investigated