AS we enter what has become known in T&T as ‘fireworks season’, let us take a moment to try to understand the suffering of humans and animals.

How would you feel if you had to soundproof your entire home with Styrofoam to help your autistic child through this period? How would you feel to know that our senior citizens and sick in hospital are unable to sleep/rest/recover due to loud explosions night after night, and even during the day?

How would you feel if you as a farmer, providing eggs to the nation, stood in your barn on Old Year’s Night watching thousands of your chickens die due to heart failure from fireworks?

How would you feel to know these explosions adversely affect our beautiful and amazing wildlife? Hawks, toucans, parrots, monkeys and more! Many of these animals die from heart failure. Dogs and cats run away (by escaping even though precautions are taken to keep them safe) and are run over by vehicles. Don’t believe me? Take a drive on the East-West Corridor on New Year’s Day and see for yourself. Yes, we all suffer.

How would you feel to know that on a night when others are joyfully ringing in the new year with fireworks displays, others are having to enter the hospital with their loved ones who suffer from mental illness?

How would you feel if you suffered from anxiety and thought the loud explosions were gunfire? One year around 8 p.m. while driving home on Christmas night, we were blocked in the road by the East Dry River. We were terrified as we did not know what was going on. It was a ‘firework fight’ between the youth of the area.

What would happen if they were injured and killed? Who would be held responsible for this? Why do we continue to waste hard-earned money to watch it go up in smoke? Why is our Government not enforcing the laws regarding fireworks?

And lastly, to the wealthy who continue to buy and use fireworks-please rethink this waste of money and donate it to the many animal shelters begging for help to keep their rescued animals alive. Let us unite as a nation and show that we care and respect one another and our animals.

‘In a world where you can be anything, be kind.’ This was a quote from a well-known British celebrity who tragically took her own life in December 2019, leaving people to question: could I do more to be kind?

Jillian Scott Diego Martin