Fireworks killed a Leeds guinea pig during Bonfire Night, according to the heartbroken owner.
Shadow was only a 15-week-old when he died on Saturday, overcome with stress and anxiety due to the constant loud bangs outside his home in Eastdean Grove, Seacroft.
Tearful owner Katie Proctor, 24, took his lifeless corpse to the vets yesterday (Sunday), who’d told her the ginger, black and white pet had died of shock. Katie’s partner Robert was left questioning why people had “no respect for pets”.
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Katie said her son Alfie, three, didn’t really understand what had happened and was confused why they only had one guinea pig rather than two. She couldn’t stop crying all morning, faced with telling him the bad news.
Katie said: “I’m upset and angry, pets should be able to live stress free without hearing loud noises that could kill them. I don’t know what was going through Shadow’s head, he was probably wondering ‘why am I hearing these loud noises that are scaring me’.
“I think he was confused and scared. He was so lovely, you could get him out and let him run about the house and he’d sit on you. I was crying this morning as this just shouldn’t have happened.
“I loved him. If I could have done something to help him, I would have done anything to stop him from dying.”
Katie, who works as a sales assistant at Card Factory, also has two dogs and said one of them was also going hysterical during the night, pacing nervously around the house in fear of the loud noises.
Filled with anger, Katie had a message for the people who were setting off the fireworks by her house. She said: “Think about the pets that get stressed through it all. They killed him with loud fireworks, stressed him out and sent him into shock.”
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