An animal rights group appealed to the public against the use of firecrackers to welcome the New Year saying that animals suffer more stress than humans do when firecrackers explode.

The Ecological Waste (EcoWaste) Coalition, a waste and toxic watchdog, stressed this point as it teamed up with the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), an organization dedicated to preventing cruelty and ill treatment of animals since 1954, in appealing to the public to celebrate a firecracker-free New Year.

“Pets and other animals suffer from stress because of firecrackers. They suffer a lot because their sense of hearing is at least 10 times more sensitive than that of humans. Animals also get poisoned when they somehow eat pieces of firecracker wrappings,” PAWS program director Anna Cabrera said.

According to veterinarians, firecrackers can result to severe ear injuries for animals that have far sharper sense of hearing than humans.

They also said that because of their acute hearing ability, the loud noise, which can sound like a bomb to them, can terribly hurt their ears.

“A single explosion of firecracker can put them into panic mode; imagine what a litany of explosions coming from all sides and lasting for hours could do to them,” EcoWaste Iwas PapuToxic campaigner Aileen Lucero said.

“Firecrackers drive out animals, not mythological bad luck or bad spirits and we all know that an ecosystem devoid of fauna stands on the cusp of doom,” she pointed out.

PAWS and the various affiliates of the EcoWaste Coalition expressed harmony in urging the public to be sensitive to the health and safety needs of voiceless animals, especially in protecting animals from chemical pollution and excessive noise that cause them to panic and tremble with fear.

“It’s up to us humans to speak for the animals who could not defend themselves from the brutality they experience from firecracker explosions,” the groups said.

Instead of heralding the New Year with poison fumes and deafening blast from pyrotechnic devices, the groups back the use of safe and environment-friendly substitutes, such as blowing traditional horns or "torotot," made of recycled materials.