A firework killed one woman's pet rabbit in Manchester last night, she's claimed.
Jen Bradshaw from Wigan, Greater Manchester, said her bunny Dash tragically passed away in her arms after a 'bomb-like' firework went off on Thursday, for Bonfire Night.
The one-year-old Lion Lop rabbit had a fatal seizure when the firework exploded loudly, leaving student nurse Jen absolutely devastated.
Reflecting on the experience, Jen, 26, said: "It was 6pm and the fireworks were already booming, not your run of the mill fireworks but proper bomb-like ones. I went outside to feed & check on my rabbits. I noticed Dash lying on the floor of the paved run.
"She was lethargic and cold but breathing, she seemed like she was in shock.
"I wrapped her in a towel to warm her up and syringed a little water into her mouth to try and bring her round a bit.
"I checked her heartbeat with my stethoscope and it was much slower than it should have been.
"Then another round of fireworks started and with the initial boom she jolted in my arms.
"Her legs and paws twitched a bit, her eyes shook in her skull and then rolled back to show the whites. Her neck extended and her whole body went stiff as a board.
"After a couple of minutes she relaxed but there was another round of fireworks and she had another episode.
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"This time she didn't relax and stayed stiff. Her heartbeat faded and she passed away in my arms.
"Two friends offered me things I could use as indoor cages for my other rabbits so my partner went and got them and then we brought the others in."
Sharing the horror incident with others on social media, in order to prove just how destructive fireworks could be for animals, Jen posted a picture of her poor rabbit "hopping around" happily, and a snap of it moments before its death, and wrote: "This is the real impact of fireworks on frightened animals.
"Stop taking the p*** out of concerned owners and have some compassion."
"I've got a dog cowering in his crate, another dog howling and shaking and a rabbit who has had two fits in my arms brought on by the bangs and died.
"This rabbit was hopping around the run at 4pm and now she's dead. Frightened to death of losing any of my others."
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In the images, Dash can be seen lying on a towel on Jen's lap, as she syringes water into its mouth to try and revive it.
Following her rabbit's death, Jen has now bought the rest of her seven rabbits inside, putting them in the crates acquired from her friend.
Her post has been shared over 15,000 times since she shared the incident online, and thousands of people have reached out sending their condolences about Dash.
"I'm so sorry for your loss," one person wrote after reading about the bunny.
While another posted: "My two bunnies have passed away to these horrible fireworks also. I'm absolutely devastated."
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"So sorry about this awful. I have been saying for years we need silent fireworks," a third wrote.
The news comes after Tyla discovered that 80 per cent of our readers believe sales of fireworks be banned altogether to avoid causing distress to pets.
A Twitter poll saw 80.5 per cent back the ban, while only 19.5 per cent believed fireworks should continue to be sold.
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The news comes after animal charity the RSPCA have urged pets owners to start preparing their animals for the potentially stressful evening.
The charity has launched their #BangOutOfOrder campaign in a bid to make Bonfire Night a little more safer for animals.
They are now calling for changes in firework regulation, including restricting private use to traditional dates, reducing the maximum permitted decibels for fireworks, ensuring all public firework displays are licensed and for private firework boxes to be labelled.
This isn't the first time we've heard of a rabbit dying because of terrifying fireworks.
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Last year, another woman named Donna Pilgrim, 60, filmed her one-year-old bunny Archie violently shaking while fireworks were going off at a nearby display to her home in Millbrook, Cornwall, and later revealed he had died in terror.
"Sadly my sweet little Archie is no longer with us," she wrote, in a then viral post.
"I am so upset but so damn angry too. He was happily eating his supper at 5.30pm, then the fireworks started."
In recent weeks, a petition has been launched calling for a ban on the sale of fireworks.
Featured Image Credit: DeadlineTopics: Life News, Pets, Life, Animals