Evie the dog recovering from Halloween scare as Vancouver looks to ban fireworks

A Vancouver dog named Evie is still recovering from a scary Halloween night. 

The nine-month old Boston Terrier broke off from her leash when a loud firecracker scared her — just days before the city of Vancouver votes on a fireworks ban.

"She just darted off," said owner Edward Reyes, who had taken Evie out for a quick walk.

"I was looking for her frantically pretty much the whole night, driving miles and miles around with no avail." 

The next morning, Reyes posted news about his lost pet and within hours, heard from a woman who had found Evie and taken her to a local animal hospital. 

"She was pretty beat up," Reyes said. "All four paws are bandaged up."

He said it's not clear how she sustained her injuries — which were so severe the vet said it looked like the dog had been dragged — and Evie will be out of commission for the next few weeks.

Reyes said he's angry the fireworks frightened his young dog. "I'm a little ticked off, I don't think there's any place for fireworks,"  he said.

"It only traumatizes and scares our pets."

Proposed ban

The current bylaw in Vancouver restricts the sale of fireworks to Oct. 25-31 every year, but some in the city are pushing for an outright ban for personal fireworks, any time of year. 

"We're one of the only municipalities left in Metro [Vancouver] that still allows the sale and discharge of consumer fireworks," said Coun. Pete Fry, who introduced the motion. 

"We can do better."

Fry is pushing to reduce public access to fireworks and to enforce stricter rules around permitting.

He pointed to this past Halloween — with 20 firework-related fires, two children sent to hospital with burns and $400,000 worth of property damage, according to Fry — as an example of why he wants the bylaw changed. 

"It has a pretty significant impact on wildlife, on people with PTSD, on pets and, frankly, on our tax-paying bottom line," Fry said. 

City council will vote on the issue on Nov. 5.