Speaker 1: Gielda.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
Speaker 2: daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. Remember remember
Speaker 2: the fifth of November. It's guy Fawkes, which means a
Speaker 2: sleepless night for some of our furry friends. For more
Speaker 2: than four hundred years, the English Catholic's failure to blow
Speaker 2: up the Houses of Parliament in London has been celebrated,
Speaker 2: But at what cost? Every year we're warned by the
Speaker 2: likes of SPCA that what is an exciting night for
Speaker 2: us is a terrifying night for animals. Not to mention
Speaker 2: fire and Emergency and Z is continuously urging people to
Speaker 2: think about the risk of fireworks before buying them, and
Speaker 2: on average ACC accepts around three hundred new claims every
Speaker 2: year for fireworks related in and data shows that children
Speaker 2: under the age of ten make up around a quarter
Speaker 2: of them. Each time it rolls around, though, the question
Speaker 2: is asked, should fireworks be banned? And why on Earth
Speaker 2: does New Zealand even celebrate it in the first place.
Speaker 2: Today on the Front Page, Animates CEO Neil Cowie is
Speaker 2: with us to explain why tonight is such a scary
Speaker 2: experience for animals big and small. But first we speak
Speaker 2: to AA Insurance underwriting manager Nancy Maloney on the continued
Speaker 2: calls to roll back on the fireworks. First off, Nancy,
Speaker 2: it's Guy Fawkes. Of course, AA has done a survey.
Speaker 2: How do kiwis really feel about fireworks?
Speaker 3: Well, look, we do the survey every year and the
Speaker 3: results this year are showing a similar trend to what
Speaker 3: we've seen previously, with all almost three quarters of kiwis
Speaker 3: expressing that fireworks should be banned for recreational or at
Speaker 3: card use. At least.
Speaker 1: We're crazy about them. They're crazy about who's live. We're
Speaker 1: just making them on.
Speaker 4: People should be entitled to use whatever they want, when
Speaker 4: they want it, within safe means.
Speaker 1: Public displays would be would be better for the younger ones.
Speaker 2: It's a minority, not the majority that is spawning it
Speaker 2: for everyone else.
Speaker 1: Every one that I know of is responsible, and most
Speaker 1: keys are very responsible with fireworks.
Speaker 2: What are some of the reasons why they want to
Speaker 2: see fireworks band all of.
Speaker 3: The variety of reasons. The top three were scaring animals
Speaker 3: and you might have seen a few releases last week
Speaker 3: actually coming out around the impact on animals this time
Speaker 3: of year. Second top reason was irresponsible use and food
Speaker 3: was the risk of fire damage, which you know, being
Speaker 3: in the insurance business is something we're really across.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've seen a stat since twenty nineteen, we've
Speaker 2: seen six hundred and seventy six fires caused by fireworks,
Speaker 2: five hundred and thirteen of which were vegetation fires. When
Speaker 2: it comes to insurance, how much does aapay out on
Speaker 2: average when it comes to these fire claims.
Speaker 3: Look, there's not always a link that we observed between
Speaker 3: increase home fire claims and fireworks season, but it's not
Speaker 3: auto wow, how easily things can catch on fire. In
Speaker 3: terms of fire claims costs, we've seen a twenty percent
Speaker 3: increase in large fire claims and we've paid out over
Speaker 3: twelve million dollars to date this year.
Speaker 2: And it's getting drier as well. Hey, coming from Australia
Speaker 2: ten years ago, I thought it was absolutely bonkers that
Speaker 2: fireworks were being sold for recreational use, and of course
Speaker 2: must be buyers because I'm just thinking of things catching
Speaker 2: on fire. Is that something that you are seeing through
Speaker 2: these survey results as well?
Speaker 3: Definitely we're seeing. So when we broke down the overall
Speaker 3: results of the survey, so fifty four percent supported backyard
Speaker 3: ban or recreational use, but an additional seventeen percent wanted
Speaker 3: to go further and have them banned entirely. That was
Speaker 3: particularly high among homeowners, those age fifty plus and those
Speaker 3: who identify as female as well. I think it's important
Speaker 3: to acknowledge that twenty five percent still had no issues.
Speaker 3: And we're not here to be the fun police. We're
Speaker 3: not here to rain on anyone's parade. But what we
Speaker 3: want to do is really educate and ask keyis to
Speaker 3: just you know, if you are setting them off in
Speaker 3: your backyard, do so responsibly.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Nancy.
Speaker 2: Another year and more calls to ban the sale of
Speaker 2: fireworks in New Zealand. A petition is underway which will
Speaker 2: be presented to the House of Representatives and in a
Speaker 2: world first, pets can too sign with a poor print.
Speaker 2: CEO of Animates, Neil Cowy is with us to speak
Speaker 2: on behalf of the animals as to why it could
Speaker 2: be time to ten this fiery tradition.
Speaker 1: First off, Neil, tell me about this petition.
Speaker 5: The poor prom petition. So yes, so fireworks at this
Speaker 5: time of the year. We know causes distress, extreme distress
Speaker 5: to pits. I guess, while afe across New Zealand and
Speaker 5: we believe it animates that it's time to ban the
Speaker 5: sale the private style of fireworks and safeguards animal.
Speaker 1: Healthy Why do you think I'll go on?
Speaker 5: And it's not only about the fifth of November. It's
Speaker 5: the bigger issue is the stockpiling of fireworks, but it
Speaker 5: gets set off throughout the which really compounds the stress
Speaker 5: the dangered animals. And I guess it's when you least expected.
Speaker 5: I guess that fireworks. As a pet parent or a
Speaker 5: pet owner, I can take steps to safeguard my pets
Speaker 5: and I can look after them, and I knock them
Speaker 5: in fire between you least expected down the track when
Speaker 5: there are real dangers and stress. Litter animals come to
Speaker 5: the foe, in some cases not even at home when
Speaker 5: it happens.
Speaker 2: Bookland councils pushing for a ban on private youth.
Speaker 6: The reason people give for wanting the barn as purely
Speaker 6: safety people, animals, pets and wildlife get injured. There isn't
Speaker 6: a da. It's not the fifth of November. We sell
Speaker 6: fireworks for four days, people stop pail them.
Speaker 2: They have become something that gets stored up in people's
Speaker 2: homes and used at other times, and that's a concern
Speaker 2: to fire an emergency.
Speaker 1: Why do you reckon? Now is the time?
Speaker 2: Because it feels like every year we talk about this
Speaker 2: banning fireworks.
Speaker 5: I don't know, I really don't know. I mean, in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty three, three quarters of kiwis were in favor
Speaker 5: of banning fireworks. So I guess at the end of
Speaker 5: the day, it's ultimately the government that needs to make
Speaker 5: that decision. But there is definitely a movement to ban fireworks.
Speaker 5: What we're trying to do is we trying to We're
Speaker 5: trying to give the animals a voice, which is the
Speaker 5: uniqueness about our campaign called the Poor prim petition, So
Speaker 5: I hopefully they can have a voice as well. And
Speaker 5: since we're going really.
Speaker 2: Well, the sale of fireworks is meant to be restricted
Speaker 2: to just four days a year, from Saturday, November two
Speaker 2: to Tuesday, November fifth, or today. I don't know about you,
Speaker 2: but I hear fireworks going off. I heard them going
Speaker 2: off before Saturday or November two.
Speaker 1: It's pretty disappointing.
Speaker 2: Hey, when people stockpile them or if they're going off
Speaker 2: before they're legally being able.
Speaker 3: To be sold.
Speaker 2: They've either stockpiled them and they're expired, or they've gotten
Speaker 2: them from someone where they shouldn't have. What do you
Speaker 2: reckon that says about how many people actually let them
Speaker 2: off responsibly.
Speaker 5: I really can't comment, but I would think many users
Speaker 5: are responsible. But it's exactly that point that you're making
Speaker 5: around stock party that is, in our view, are a
Speaker 5: really big issue. It really compounds the stress and the
Speaker 5: danger to animals. And like I said, if you knew
Speaker 5: they were happening or the public display, you can safeguard
Speaker 5: your patent's after them. That's when you least expect it.
Speaker 5: So I mean, I really feel for the wildlife, the birds,
Speaker 5: even our livestock horses for instance, if you don't have
Speaker 5: the ability to look after your horse and put them
Speaker 5: in a stable, the consequences can be quite catastrophic.
Speaker 2: Actually yeah, And every year vets are just inundated with
Speaker 2: animals who have hurt themselves due to being that scared
Speaker 2: by fireworks.
Speaker 5: Hey, yes, we are vatine. Actually they feel calls before
Speaker 5: because people are genuinely anxious in terms of getting advice,
Speaker 5: but it's the post trauma that is an issue. So
Speaker 5: we do see it in our clinics around as well.
Speaker 2: These days Guy Fawkes is less about the past and
Speaker 2: almost entirely about the big bangs.
Speaker 1: And for the spcaight it's their busiest nights of the year.
Speaker 4: Certainly around this time of year, and are certainly approaching
Speaker 4: Guy Fawkes as well as the time shortly afterwards seeing
Speaker 4: will experience a quite a significant rise and calls to
Speaker 4: our an a more reporting line, specifically in relation to
Speaker 4: lost animals. We find a lot of dogs go missing
Speaker 4: over that period, either Guy Fawke's night or the day after.
Speaker 4: Really it's about comforting them, keeping them safe, putting in
Speaker 4: an environment where they're going to be looked after and
Speaker 4: not likely to injure themselves or run away. Really, we've
Speaker 4: had horses that have run into fences and head injuries
Speaker 4: that way. We've had stock that have broken through fences
Speaker 4: that they wouldn't normally do and onto railway tracks and
Speaker 4: being collected by trains, or we find animals and positions
Speaker 4: where they obviously wouldn't have got too unless they're very
Speaker 4: scared at the time.
Speaker 2: In twenty nineteen, seventy four point four percent of people
Speaker 2: noticed their animals just explaying fear of fireworks. What are
Speaker 2: some of the behavior's pet owners noticed.
Speaker 5: Well, the only first thing you do is your pet
Speaker 5: is going to be startled or anxious, right, so they're
Speaker 5: going to hide. They're going to hide under a bed,
Speaker 5: or they're going to find somewhere where they can get away.
Speaker 5: They might cower, they might shiver. In a worst case,
Speaker 5: they might actually bolt and run. And they with their
Speaker 5: incidences where cat they have got out of the home
Speaker 5: and they've been missing for days whilst they tried to
Speaker 5: find a safe haven for one of the metword to
Speaker 5: look after themselves. So that's the worst case. Know and
Speaker 5: and you know horses as well, they tend to bolt
Speaker 5: when they get when they get distressed or they get frightened.
Speaker 1: Tell me a.
Speaker 2: Little bit more about this petition. It's not only humans
Speaker 2: that are able to sign it.
Speaker 5: Hey, No, that's that's the unique thing about this petition,
Speaker 5: a Chelsea, It's we call it the poor print petition.
Speaker 5: So you have the ability for your pet to have
Speaker 5: a voice as well. So what you can do is
Speaker 5: you can scan your dog or your cat's poor print
Speaker 5: and you can upload that to the website as well,
Speaker 5: and their poor print will be registered. We're using some
Speaker 5: pretty cool AI technology in terms of identifying the details
Speaker 5: like the species, a fur color, and the poor print,
Speaker 5: which then optimizes that the representation. We then turn it
Speaker 5: into a black and white graphic which symbolizes the pet themselves.
Speaker 5: It's quite unique. It's almost like a thumbprint or a fingerprint.
Speaker 2: If I can get a hold of my cap Mow
Speaker 2: for long enough to be able to do that, I'm
Speaker 2: sure he'll have a word with me and he'll tell
Speaker 2: me that he wants to do it. How many people
Speaker 2: and animals have signed the position so far?
Speaker 5: As of a little while ago, we've got forty five
Speaker 5: thousand human signatures and we've got forty two thousand pet signatures,
Speaker 5: So it's certainly getting some momentum, and that's a lot
Speaker 5: of people. We're very, very very excited about the number,
Speaker 5: and we think that's going to go up, particularly over
Speaker 5: the next week or two.
Speaker 2: And I mean I mentioned this before, but we do
Speaker 2: know how fireworks negatively affect our pets. Why in the
Speaker 2: world do you think we still do it, Chelsea?
Speaker 5: I just don't know. If you think about around the
Speaker 5: world many places about fireworks Australia, you haven't had fireworks
Speaker 5: in most of these states for for years, for decades,
Speaker 5: I think, so it's just a thing crazy that we
Speaker 5: do still have this this sort of firework display. As
Speaker 5: just that it's been reduced to three or four days
Speaker 5: with the selling stockpiling, that's the issue. So both are
Speaker 5: going to be selling for one or two days. People
Speaker 5: are still in the stock quite right, and and you know,
Speaker 5: I just don't understand why we still we've got it
Speaker 5: given the consequences on animals.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, Neil. That said, for this episode
Speaker 2: of the Front Page. You can read more about today's
Speaker 2: stories and extensive news coverage at NSIDHERLD dot co dot nz.
Speaker 2: The Front Page is produced by Ethan Seals. Richard Martin
Speaker 2: and Dan Goodwin are the sound engineers.
Speaker 1: I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front
Speaker 2: Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and
Speaker 2: tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.