Maritimes man wants more defined fireworks rules after death of donkey
Jason Murray,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A man in the Maritimes is mourning the loss of his pet donkey after fireworks scared the animal on New Year’s Eve leading to his death, he says.
Guy Rochon woke up at midnight on January 1 when he heard the sound of explosions in the sky. He knew his donkey buddy Eeyore and his horse Spirit would be frightened by the noise.
When he checked the barn, they were nowhere to be seen. They were both running in the field trying to get away from the noise.
“I couldn’t see them,” Rochon said. “Then I saw them running out to the paddock area trying to evade the noise.”
He could see Spirit and his white mane bucking around in the night sky. When he found Eeyore, his eyes were shining but he wasn’t moving. His back legs were tucked in and he couldn’t get the donkey to stand.
“I saw my horse and gave him some hay,” Rochon said. “I noticed Eeyore was on the ground and he couldn’t move.”
When the vet arrived, he used a prod to see if the donkey could feel his back end. Eventually it was determined the donkey was paralyzed. He was euthanized once they decided the injury was fatal.
Rochon would like to see more regulations around fireworks in Nova Scotia. The municipality of Colchester County has a fireworks bylaw that applies within the boundaries of the village of Bible Hill. But there is no bylaw regulating the discharge of fireworks in the rest of Colchester County.
“I’d like to see it licensed so you cannot set fireworks off within 10 kilometres of any farm,” Rochon said.
He thinks this tragedy could have been prevented if the law was changed and fireworks were regulated by the province. He doesn’t want to see this kind of thing happen to other animals.
The Province of Nova Scotia does not have a specific law surrounding the use of fireworks but it did once have the Fireworks Act that was repealed in 2002.
“While the tragedy did exist, it’s preventable, it’s completely preventable,” Rochon said. “People don’t need to have these kinds of pyrotechnics in their hands.”
Jason Murray,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Advocate
