Baby red panda dies from fireworks noise stress, Edinburgh zoo says
Animal campaigners are calling for a ban on the public sale of fireworks after Roxie the baby red panda was thought to have died from stress related to the noise.
LONDON — Animal campaigners are calling for a ban on the public sale of fireworks after a baby red panda was thought to have died from stress related to the noise.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), a conservation charity that runs Edinburgh Zoo, said Wednesday that it was likely Roxie, a three-month-old red panda kit, "died due to stress caused by fireworks being let off across the city centre."
Fireworks are set off across the United Kingdom on and around Nov. 5, known as Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night, in celebration of the failure of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament by a group of dissident Catholics in 1605.
The tradition is centuries old and unique to the U.K., with some towns creating huge elaborate effigies of Guy Fawkes to be burned — sometimes instead building models of contemporary figures, including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
But animal rights campaigners and pet owners have long complained that the noise causes extreme distress to animals.
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