Tuesday evening, a first fireworks display was set off around midnight: “I think he came from Ath, about ten kilometers from us. I went to see Dara and she seemed upset, but she was fine.“Michel Colot then goes to bed.”A little before 1 a.m., I heard a second fire, closer to our house this time. I heard the dogs barking, but not the horse, probably because of the wind which was blowing particularly hard that evening. I didn’t worry.“
The next morning, around 7:30 a.m., the mare’s owner found her lying between her box and her paddock. “He sometimes goes to bed, then gets up an hour later. She didn’t look bad. I went back to check on her later and she was still on the ground. That’s when I started to worry.“
Zoupie, 37-year-old donkey, new victim of fireworks and rescued from the waters in Hélécine
Warned, Michel Colot’s wife and daughter asked for help and advice on social networks to recover the animal. “We gave her food and water and put a blanket on her to protect her from the cold. We called the firefighters to help us get her up, but the place where Dara was lying was very difficult to access. We tried several times to raise it, in vain. We called the vet, who noticed that his heart was beating very fast, due to stress. He told us that the situation was very serious. She was given a painkiller to try again to get her up, but she never gave any sign of wanting it again. She was exhausted. She couldn’t take it anymore… We had to make the decision to end his suffering.“Dara took her last breath, surrounded by her family.
Extremely saddened, the owners would like their story to make those who set fires think twice without worrying about the consequences. “We lost our mare, but all the animals suffer when fires are set. The dogs, the neighboring farmer’s cows… They don’t understand what’s happening. I had contact with the mayor on Thursday, who told me that fireworks were not authorized in the town. I think that those who really cannot do without it on the evening of December 31 should at least think about the option of contained noise, and this in the interest of our animals,” concludes Dara’s owner.
In Malmedy, a cow was injured after panicking because of fireworks: “It will probably have to be euthanized”
