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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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(
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.
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.
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
Exactly. All they had to do was buy a couple of earplugs. And they call themselves professionals… Hah.
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.
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.”
Stress can cause vomiting, hell it can cause it in humans!
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A whole zoo of animals stressed out of their fucking mind, you think they had the staff to have one person with each animal to make sure they were ok?
People don’t even watch their own babies 24/7, do you expect them to do it for baby red pandas?
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.
Yeah this sounds REAL off.
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.
Maybe they should have called some vet experts to investigate. Oh wait that is exactly what they did but I am sure people on the internets know more about animals. Not a big fan of zoos but people who armchair are magnitudes worse.
And no medical professional has ever been found to be biased in their opinion. And no reporter ever misrepresented what someone said to make a more sensational article. Stress is not a well understood thing. There is no test for confirming the source of stress. And the vets aren’t saying their is. Did the fireworks contribute, sure I would trust a vet who says that, and it was probably what they actually said. But a babies Mom dieing, and not being there to comfort the baby from the stress of fireworks is probably a bigger contributor. Also read a little further down where the expert says we can’t rule out fireworks as the cause. That is totally different. Seems like the vets don’t agree.
right and random strangers on the internet are completely unbiased and generally reasonable? It does not give one enough reason to completely disregard experts’opinions. vets are saying that it probably is a contributing factor whereas people in this thread are claiming that it is the zoo who is trying to cover up for bad conditions and negligence in the zoo. tell me which one sounds more reasonable?
They didn’t call in an outside vet to investigate. The fucking zoo keepers are vets. The zoo keepers are telling you what happened. You can believe them or not, but it’s not accountability.
Check under the vet team here:
https://www.rzss.org.uk/conservation/meet-the-team
Professors, veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses etc. Edinburgh zoo is not just your run of the mill local village zoo. So sorry buddy, I am sure you will understand if I still trust the word of these people on the matter and not you, a random person with distaste against zoos (not a big fan either to be honest). I mean this is not just any field as well, this is zoology. People usually get into it because they love animals and such. It is not completely impossible for someone in this field to lie to cover up but now it is just your personal distaste against zoos and human kind vs several very well trained people on the field… As I said, I am not a big fan of zoos either and somewhat undecided about conservatories (which is what “Edinburgh Zoo” actually is) but that does not make people working there terrible lying scum bags.
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.
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!
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
😭
So susceptible to stres. Zoos often lack enough cover and “hide away” spots for them. Poor thing
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…
People can get really defensive and hostile about fireworks and I’ve never really understood it.
I quit smoking at the beginning of this summer because it’s a terrible habit that’s inconsiderate to others at best(and bad for me too). So I quit. The thing is I actually liked smoking…Nicotine is something else(I used nicotine gum for anyone wondering)
So if I can accept that about smoking, why is it so hard for folks to understand that fireworks, while enjoyable, can have detrimental effects to other living creatures nearby? Some of whom might be people? It’s just really strange to me.
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.
Coming to answer after being woken up by a neighbour’s after-party noise, after a few hours of inadequate sleep caused due to noise from said party. And it’s half past ten. On top of that, I have had a bad sleep for the past 2 weeks due to continuous bombardment (no, that’s just Diwali) for the past 2 weeks.
And even from the video, you may notice - It’s less about cars, but that people are loud:
- People like car go vroom vroom
- People like farting motorcycles and most of them over here, buy non-farting motorbikes and get them modified to get them to fart. Same for farting cars. Only a few cars that fart by default. Mist of the farters are modded.
- The horn problem is also more about people and less about traffic necessity. On top of that, the sound-proof cabins make it hard for car drivers to hear cycle bells. I recently got a near miss from that.
- And guess what, that area also gets loud when there’s a party
- Tire noise, I’d rather have that. How else would I know when there is a car behind me, before they blast the horn? In fact, me detecting the car first, looking back to see their lane and giving way, has prevented a lot of potential horns. But yes, if the low sound roads and the porous roads that help in rainwater infiltration (causing groundwater replenishment and reducing sinkhole probability) are the same, then I would definitely be for it.
Air pollution:
Taken from 9:13 in the video.- Roads have been pretty breathable [1] ever since Catalytic converters and I have been mostly fine, breathing heavily while running over 35.
- There is another kind of farters. The vehicles who don’t get proper maintenance and start puffing white smoke, filling the road air with it, making me have to take a stop or hastily overtake them.
There is just one case, where I would look differently and that is the case of tuk-tuks and mopeds, which turns out to be out of necessity and lack of money. Because those have to be cheap, to cater to the requirement of the target customer, reduced noise comes lower in the list of priorities.
at least as long as you are only considering the vehicle smoke and not the smoke coming out of smouldering sticks in the rider’s/driver’s mouths ↩︎
Don’t forget the fires and injuries!
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
I’m glad to hear these little red dudes aren’t extinct yet, tbh.
Me too.
