Hundreds of dead birds littered the streets of Rome after a barrage of unauthorized fireworks lit up the sky on New Year’s Eve – a scene animal rights activists called a “massacre.”
“They may have died of fear,” Loredana Diglio, spokeswoman for the International Organization for the Protection of Animals, told the Associated Press.
“They can fly up together and bump into each other, or hit windows or power lines,” Diglio said. “Let’s not forget that they can also die of heart attacks.”
Residents of the Italian capital set off the fireworks en masse despite a city ban on the displays and a 10pm curfew due to the coronavirus pandemic – but both were ignored by many locals.
Diglio said fireworks suffer or injure wild and domestic animals every year, and the Italian branch of IOPA had banned the sale of the colorful explosives for personal use because of the threat to animals.
With pole wires