Letter: Disturbances impact people and pets

The Fourth of July, the holiday I dread, is approaching. People have the right in some places to start shooting fireworks days before — and the day after.

Shelters will be overwhelmed with lost animals who have run away from home in fear. Veterinary emergency rooms will have dogs and cats that have run into the streets and been hit by cars. There will be animals that are chained or penned and can’t get away but just have endure the fear and stress.

I liked fireworks as a child. I also loved animals but no one ever told me that the fireworks were terrorizing them. If they had, I would have never used fireworks. I loved animals more. Having spent years working in veterinary emergency rooms, I know now that animals suffer during the Fourth of July.

I wish to stop the sale of fireworks. I wish people would spend their money on something of real value that would last.

I wish there was a better way to celebrate our freedom than disturbing the sleep of people who still have jobs to go to the next morning. I wish we could think of others instead of just what we want at a given moment.

Linda Langdon

Camas