Halifax-area recreation farm asks neighbours to hold off on fireworks

With Canada Day looming, a popular recreation farm in the Halifax area is asking neighbours to not set off loud and colourful pyrotechnics due to the effect they have on their animals. 

On Friday, Hatfield Farm posted on social media that the use of fireworks on recent nights had caused their horses to panic and stampede.

"They're going to kill somebody," Brian Hatfield, owner of the farm in Hammonds Plains, N.S., said in an interview.

Hatfield said he and his wife had to chase down the horses to try to settle them down, which can be very dangerous.

He's worried they could get hurt or an even more serious accident could happen if the horses break through a fence and get out onto the nearby Hammonds Plains Road, he said. 

Hatfield said he realizes he can't stop everyone from using fireworks, but he hopes anyone near the farm who plans to use them to celebrate will at least give staff a heads-up so horses can be tied up inside for the night. 

"If people could tell us that they're having fireworks, we can take precautions," he said. 

Trying to stop 'this insanity'

A group calling for Nova Scotia to ban public use of fireworks formed in 2022 after fireworks in Canning, N.S., caused a horse to panic and break its leg, which led to it being euthanized. 

"That's why we're here and that's why we continue to try and get this insanity to stop," said Hugh Chisholm, who sits on the steering committee for the group known as #FireworksHurt.

The Nova Scotia Equestrian Federation's call for the ban of fireworks after the 2022 incident shows many horse owners agree with Hatfield Farm, Chisholm said. 

He said he wants Nova Scotia to follow in the footsteps of Prince Edward Island, where fireworks have been illegal for decades. 

The lobby group isn't opposed to fireworks being set off during sanctioned events on holidays like Canada Day and New Year's Eve, he said, but members of the public shouldn't be allowed to set them off whenever and wherever they want. 

"It's time to say that your five minutes of fun is not worth the impact that it has on everybody else, the people, the animals, the environment, the risk of fire, and so on," Chisholm said.