Unsplash | Roven Images

This City Only Uses ‘Silent’ Fireworks To Reduce Anxiety In Animals

Updated August 16, 2021

Anyone who owns a cat or a dog knows just how traumatic fireworks can be for our precious fur-babies. There's nothing worse than witnessing your beloved pet cower in fear over something you can't explain has no intention of hurting them. It's heartbreaking.

Burdened with super sensitive hearing, nothing else seems to bother them quite as much as a series of explosive fireworks sounding in the sky. The high-pitched squeal, crack, and deafening pop is enough to send them running to hide beneath your bed.

There are some products out there aimed at trying to keep your pet feeling safe and calm during fireworks.

Thunder Shirt

The Thunder Shirt is a weighted, anti-anxiety jacket meant to help your dog feel less stressed during uncomfortable situations, like when fireworks are sounding or when there's a thunderstorm going on outside.

The product's website explains the jacket is a "natural calming solution... Like swaddling an infant."

Ford even came up with a noise-cancelling kennel to protect dogs from fireworks noises.

Ford Europe

The automaker came up with this unique solution back in 2018, using the same technology found in cars and headphones to keep dogs' sensitive ears protected during especially loud pyrotechnic displays.

But rather than having to go out and buy something to keep your pet anxiety-free, wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to worry about fireworks at all?

Unsplash | Matthew Henry

One city in Italy has made it possible for pet owners to relax knowing their beloved animals won't have to suffer through an unnecessarily loud fireworks show, no matter what the holiday.

According to Dog Time, the local government of Collecchio passed a law that said citizens could only set off fireworks if they were silent so as to reduce anxiety in animals.

If you're like me, you weren't actually aware that silent fireworks were a thing that exist.

And if you're like me, you'll also be surprised to know this technology isn't even new. Silent fireworks have been a thing for over three decades.

Collecchio has used quiet pyrotechnics from the company Setti Fireworks before. But they aren't the only ones giving our ears a bit of a break.

As it turns out, even some of the firework shows we attend include silent ones without us even knowing.

Unsplash | Erwan Hesry

Of course, we still get a pretty decent boom from these spectacles, but many mainstream firework displays include a few silent explosions to offer more visual entertainment than auditory.

The silent fireworks rule isn't just for the benefit of our easily-anxious domestic pets, either.

Unsplash | Felipe Ruales

Eliminating the loud explosions also helps ease anxious wildlife, who we often forget might be affected by outrageously loud and lengthy fireworks display.

In fact, on New Year's Eve in 2010, a fireworks display in Beebe, Arkansas, spooked some 5,000 red-winged blackbirds so bad that they flew into cars, trees, and buildings, turning this New Year celebration into something more akin to an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

While Collecchio opted for silent fireworks, different places have found creative ways to keep animals calm during celebrations.

Some use laser shows to get that same sky-high visual art effect without having to spook the wildlife, or leave dangerous, plastic firework casings littered on the ground.

I'm personally on board with anything that will help my precious doggo stay happy and calm during celebrations. And with summer upon us, the opportunity for fireworks are plenty, so the more people who understand the serious toll their firework displays can have on animals, the better.

h/t: Dog Times

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