Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Alison Vaughan: SPCA Senior Scientific Officer on the Government's decision not to ban the public sale of fireworks

Transcript

Alison Vaughan: SPCA Senior Scientific Officer on the Government's decision not to ban the public sale of fireworks · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Firework debate is back on again. The government's rejected calls
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to ban public sales despite big petitions. Ministers say they're
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: sticking with the status quo. How does the SPCA feel
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: about it? We're joined by their senior scientific officer, doctor
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Allison Vaughan. Hello, Ellison, Hello, I expect that you're very disappointed.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're genuinely devastated. We are actually quite hopeful this
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: time because this had been the first time the Petition
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Committee had actually recommended that the government ban the privacy
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: on youse fireworks, while of course keeping public displays.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's talk about that. Parliament's Petitions Committee recommended
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a ban. They said their assessment is that public sentiment
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: is shifting. They consider that present generations have more information
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: about and therefore take more seriously the effects of fireworks
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: on animal welfare than previous generations may have done. So,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: given that recommendation, why do you think the government did nothing?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I think that's an excellent question to put to the government.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: We honestly cannot explain it. The evidence is overwhelming in
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: support of the ban, in terms of animal welfare, in
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: terms of our environment, and in terms of our communities
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: and really the evidence of preserving the private sale and
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: use is absent.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: The petitions committing though and saying that we have more
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: information about this and we take more seriously effects on
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: fireworks on animals. You can also argue that we take
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: more care of our animals now and we're not so
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: crazy with the orgy of explosions that it used to be.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Why are fireworks such an issue for this country and
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: for pets when it's just four days in November.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Well, as everyone listening knows, it is not just four days,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: So there's four days when they're on sale, but I
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: had them, for example here in West Stockholm. They were
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: going off in the middle of the night last week.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: So we know that a lot of people were already
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: aware of the impacts on their companion animals if they
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: have one who's scared. Three quarters of cats and dogs
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: show fear during fireworks. A quarter of horse owners have
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: had horses injured. But now we are also more aware
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of the impact on our wildlife and also the increasing
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: risk of wildfire is caused by fireworks. Going to do next, well,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: we're not stopping here. We're continuing to work and seeing
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: progress at the local level with councils, introducing title rules,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: rand fireworks in public. But we're also going a lead
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: up to election reaching out to all of the political
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: parties to ask some tatline their position. This is an
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: issue that matches to millions of New Zealanders and we
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: think voters deserve to know where the parties stand.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: And doctor Alis and Vaughan, thank you so much for
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: your time today. She is the SPCA Senior Scientific Officer.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: For more Familily edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: news talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or follow
• 2:34
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