The festive noise that terrifies those who do not celebrate
MEXICO CITY. While human beings toast and hug each other, celebrating with explosions of colors that they consider “tolerable”, the animal kingdom is experiencing its own version of an alien invasion. The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in an act of scientific obviousness that someone had to point out, warned that for dogs, cats and company, the auditory impact of pyrotechnics is up to a hundred times greater. Imagine hearing a firecracker not as a “bang”, but as the explosion of a meteorite two feet from your head. Fun, right? Not if you’re the one with sensitive ears and doesn’t understand why the sky is falling apart.
From hyperactivity to panic: the catalog of horrors
The experts from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics enlighten us with pearls that the noise is not limited to a startle. What a surprise! In reality, detonations can trigger (pardon the redundancy) a festival of behavioral disorders: from dogs turned into hyperactive projectiles to cats that adopt an aggressiveness worthy of a tiger and small animals that desperately try to flee, often crashing into doors or windows. Your body, faced with an incomprehensible and terrifying stimulus, activates all the alarms: racing heart, uncontrollable tremors and an urgent need to escape that frequently ends in self-inflicted injuries. All because of our need to see little lights in the sky.
As if the auditory trauma were not enough, pyrotechnics also provide a post-explosion chemical cocktail. Fine dust and irritating compounds floating in the air, perfect for damaging the respiratory tract and sensitive eyes of our pets. Because mild intoxication is the perfect complement to a night of psychological terror.
Collateral victims: when fear has no owner
And here is another fact that makes us look like the villains of the movie: suffering is not exclusive to domestic animals. The organization Animal Ethics and other studies point out that wildlife and zoo animals are also victims of our explosive joy. Birds that, disoriented by panic, crash into buildings or abandon their nests, forever altering their feeding and resting cycles. Wild animals fleeing in terror from their shelters. A true spectacle of harmony with nature, without a doubt.
Faced with this bleak panorama, UNAM specialists, playing the role of firefighters putting out a fire that we lit, recommend damage containment measures. The magic recipe: prepare an interior bunker at home, with hermetically sealed doors and windows, some familiar objects that smell calm and, if possible, a background of soft sounds to mask the pitched battle outside. In cases of severe stress, the star recommendation is, of course, to go to the veterinarian. Because in the end, there is always a professional who must fix the consequences of our “innocent” traditions.
So the next time you go to light that string of rockets, think that for millions of living beings, you are not celebrating. You are declaring war. A small gesture of empathy—opting for silent light shows or simply enjoying the silence—can radically change your night. Share this information and help raise awareness about a more responsible and compassionate holiday for everyone. Explore more content on animal welfare and how to be a more conscious owner or neighbor.
