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.
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.
Has the mother also died from early Fireworks? Since when do fireworks cause vomiting…
For a second I thought this was Reddit with all the armchairing. Holy crap
Armchair zoologist, that’s a new one to add to the bingo board
I’m genuinely shocked it wasn’t there and marked already.
It was probably just missed
Since vet experts claim that they do.
"Veterinary experts at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland announced on Wednesday that a 3-month-old panda named Roxie died “due to stress caused by fireworks being let off across the city centre.”
Haven’t you heard? Expertise doesn’t matter anymore, and any rando on the internet’s view is just as valid as an expert’s (and my buddy’s view on it is even more valid).
I truly wish that I could say this was a joke.
Red panda infants are pretty fragile and often don’t survive in captivity. I would assume the mom passed away from complications due to birthing, but it could be anything.
Also, why ban something when you can just have area bans?
Even just bringing it an age limit is a good start. loads of kids buy tons of these fireworks after guy Fawkes and diwali because they are cheaper so it is more like two weeks of unending fireworks rather than two nights.
instead of investigating the conditions
Yea they should have sent some vet experts to investigate. Oh wait…
"Veterinary experts at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland announced on Wednesday that a 3-month-old panda named Roxie died “due to stress caused by fireworks being let off across the city centre.”
Ofcourse they could always just be there to burry evidence to further their holy crusade against fireworks!
Ofcourse they could always just be there to burry evidence to
further their holy crusade against fireworks!hide negligence.Ftfy
yea with a bunch of veterinary surgeons, nurses and zoology professors at their service, I am sure they were still not able to come up with a fake reason that your keen eyes were not able to spot immediately.
Exactly. All they had to do was buy a couple of earplugs. And they call themselves professionals… Hah.
Yeah this sounds REAL off.
This is just sensational reporting. From the comments, it looks like it is working. Usesome of the critical thinking we ask trump supporters to use. Medical science isn’t at the point that it can know which source of stress caused a thing. And in this case the baby had also lost it’s mother, a source of comfort. And read the whole article. “We know that fireworks can cause stress to other animals in the zoo and we cannot rule out that they may have contributed to the untimely death of Roxie’s mother Ginger, just five days’ earlier.”
They don’t even know what killed the mother.
I am sure the fireworks were a contributing factor, but sounds like the baby was already in a weakened state.
We collectively need to get over this concept that media is accurately representing the truth with intent to inform. Media is a business. It’s intent is to make money. And with lot’s of competitors, it can only survive by making the stories it reports more sensational than they are (cause their competitors are doing it) to get the clicks. Some are better than others, but they all have to do it to survive.
You’re correct that people should apply critical thought, and using a cute baby animal for this message is manipulative and people should be aware of that, but it doesn’t make the message any less important. There are many reasons to ban them. They look somewhat pretty, but you can go to a show done by professionals that’ll be more impressive.
Fireworks not only cause stress for animals, but also humans. (A pet peeve of mine is memorial day/Veterans day fireworks shows. In what world is throwing explosives around good for former soldiers?) They are a not insignificant cause of fires. They’re just generally harmful and do very little good. We don’t need them.
If spreading a manipulative article works to change people’s minds towards something better, it’s probably worth it. You can be sure other people are doing it against good.
Hello JD Vance. If you need deception to change people’s minds, maybe it’s you who is wrong.
Nope. If you just lay down and let the bad guys win because you refuse to fight, that isn’t the moral option. Be honest and use reason where it’s valuable, but don’t refuse to use emotions when that’s useful too. People with bad intention will be using it and refusing to play the game is only empowering them.
Anger is a much more useful emotion than sadness.
I believe compassion to be more constructive, but fear and anger are definitely more motivating. All emotions are sometimes useful and always an opportunity for manipulation, for better or worse, that people should be aware of.
I used to think fireworks were fun, but after getting a dog that is terrified of them, you start noticing all the little things.
People shoot then off randomly throughout the year. They leave behind garbage waste. Animals and even some humans seem to get PTSD from them.
I’m in favor of very limited fireworks in specific areas.
I’m a veteran and used to get worked up by them. It took a few years but I mostly got over it because they were predictable, the city put out notices as well as the local baseball team. And then they were legalized for a specific time frame for everybody. Any random asshole could buy and shoot off fireworks during a 3 day window.
Cool, I can hang with that. But then they shoot them off randomly for the 2 weeks surrounding the weekend that they’re allowed. That I can’t hang with. Especially during the day. Why the fuck are you shooting them off during the day anyways?!? You can’t see it! The thing that pisses me off the most? The motherfuckers shooting shit off at random times and days? Those assholes would happily suck my dick if I told them I’m a veteran and told them to do so. But then they’d fire off more fireworks to celebrate doing so.
That’s sad. Why are they selling baby red pandas?
they can’t eat all of them before the best before date
Hold my flashbang, I’m going in!
Sale of Fireworks
Fireworks fucking suck & it’s exactly the assholes you expect who promote/buy/use them.
Yeah if man made noise is a problem for a species maybe don’t house them in the FUCKING CITY…
Here’s Another thought too. Zoos are notorious for animal cruelty issues. How about not have animals locked up cruelly for our entertainment.
Says it was the “fireworks causing stress” that killed it not imprisoning a wild animal in a foreign environment. I am having a hard time blaming the fireworks here.
We’re super cute, so you’d expect that people would want to keep us around, but our existence is still endangered. Please don’t scare us to death.
Signed:
- A fuzzy red panda
😭
So susceptible to stres. Zoos often lack enough cover and “hide away” spots for them. Poor thing
Why can’t they put them in a sound safe zone till the fireworks dissipate? This zoo is incompetent and should be investigated
Or, maybe fireworks should just not be a thing.
Because a lot of idiots keep shooting fireworks even though the day they’re supposed to be used on has not yet come or has long passed. Here, they’re supposed for New Year’s Eve. The first one this autumn went off sometime in September. The last one usually goes off sometime in February. What are the zookeepers supposed to do?
A lot of people in the comment here are being pretty obtuse, I’m doubtful many are even from the UK and understand the scale of celebrations with Guy Fawks and Divali being so close together this year
Not even just that. I can’t speak for Edinburgh, but in the area I live in in Glasgow we’ve had random fireworks go off during the day for weeks leading up to Guy Fawkes. One big explosion every now and then. One day, still bright out, I was walking home and almost hit the deck because one went off so close to me out of nowhere.
After Guy Fawkes it has been less frequent, but still happens, at very odd times. You can even check news and see that it’s been an issue for a while. E.g.: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0j87zneq4vo
It stresses me out a bit, and I spend most of my time in my own home, with decent soundproofing. And I’m not a sensitive endangered animal.
We still have idiots here where I live in SE London letting off fireworks, last night was some. This last week or so my autoimmune illnesses are flaring up again so lot of pain and unwell, few days ago idiots let off more fireworks so loud I had to cover ears and take strong painkillers to try cope with effects of explosions :o(
Hopefully no more fireworks, still recovering, hands, arms, back, chest and left leg still in pain with, hope will get better soon :o(
I’m not British but have been living here over a decade and I still notice how frequently fireworks go off a week leading up to any of the big nights and for a several days after. Other places I’ve been in Europe very much do fireworks on new years eve only, and just a small handful of teenagers might be playing with fireworks a few days early, or playing with the leftovers the next day.
Hey, if your country is overrun by red panda infestations, you know exactly what to do!
Die from cuteness overload?
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
Plz no. We are so cute. 🥺
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.
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!
I find it immensely infuriating that the article’s byline shows they are reporting from ‘London’ when in fact this happened not just in a different city, Edinburgh, but in a completely different country, Scotland.
Sad about the pandas, there are far too many people that simply can’t be trusted with fireworks. Limiting it to a single night in dedicated display venues run by licensed organisations wouldn’t remove the noise entirely, but it would reduce the frequency and would probably help all animals.
"Veterinary experts at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland announced on Wednesday that a 3-month-old panda named Roxie died “due to stress caused by fireworks being let off across the city centre.”
Go on guys teach those no good experts how to do their jobs!
I feel the need to put the /s tag seeing the comments in this topic.
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.
