Polish cities and shops shun fireworks for New Year’s Eve to protect animals and environment

A number of Polish cities have decided against holding fireworks displays for New Year’s Eve in order to avoid causing distress to animals and damage to the environment. One of Poland’s largest chains of DIY stores has also chosen not to sell fireworks ahead of tonight’s festivities.

“Fireworks cause severe stress” for animals, warns Robert Maślak, a biologist from the University of Wrocław. The loud explosions make them panic, which can result in physical injuries and psychological damage, or in some cases death, says Maślak.

As a result of such concerns, as well warnings about the environmental damage caused by fireworks, six years ago Kraków became the first major city to abandon its traditional fireworks display, replacing it with a laser show. Szczecin, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Sopot, Malbork and Tarnów are among the cities that have followed suit.

They were joined last year by Warsaw, whose mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, says that the city “wants to set a good example” by avoiding the use of fireworks so as not to “frighten our animals”. Residents are not banned from using fireworks themselves, but officials discourage them from doing so. “Let’s help animals together,” appealed Trzaskowski in a video alongside his pet dog.

His decision has led criticism from some quarters, especially on the right of the political spectrum. One journalist, Grzegorz Frątczak of Polish Radio, complained last year: “I’m a driver, meat-eater, white male who likes fireworks…Soon they’ll put me in jail for being what I am.”

Just before Christmas, councillors in Zakopane, a mountain resort town in the south of Poland, voted to prohibit public fireworks displays throughout the year. They argued that fireworks not only cause stress to animals and air, noise and light pollution, but are also a fire safety hazard to the city’s famous wooden architecture.

Zakopane has this year been embroiled in a separate dispute over New Year’s Eve, following the decision by state broadcaster TVP to hold its annual televised celebration at the town’s ski-jump stadium. Animal rights groups, as well as many locals, complained that the event would cause anxiety to animals, including hibernating bears.

TVP responded by labelling its critics “pseudo-ecologists”, but eventually agreed to move the location. However, this week it was revealed that local newspaper Tygodnik Podhalański, which led the campaign to move the event, as well as Gazeta Wyborcza, a newspaper critical of the government, had not been given press accreditation by TVP.

One city that has moved in the opposite direction is Poznań. It chose not to hold a fireworks display two years ago, but has since returned to the practice. A spokeswoman for the mayor, quoted by TVN24, says that the alternative multimedia show turned out to be more expensive, and that many people set off fireworks during the display anyway. Surveys of residents also showed strong support for a traditional fireworks display.

A petition supported by 14 NGOs called on the city to reverse its decision and cancel the fireworks display, saying it would cause distress to animals and people with autism, as well as environmental damage. But the city authorities said it was too late to change their plans. They do, however, encourage residents to come to see the main municipal display rather than shooting off fireworks themselves.

One of Poland’s biggest chains of home-improvement stores, the German-owned OBI, has joined the anti-fireworks trend. It announced that it would not be selling fireworks ahead of New Year’s Eve in its 50 stores around Poland or online because of concerns for “care for animals and the environment”.

Firework producers and sellers, unsurprisingly, complain about the trend to move away from their products. “Our industry is the victim of a negative PR” campaign, one large wholesaler tells website Money.pl. “It was bad last year; and [this year] probably worse. I really wonder how we’ll survive.”

Main image credit: Kuba Bożanowski/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.