The Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ZSTT) is ap­plaud­ing the Gov­ern­ment for tak­ing the bold move to ban the im­por­ta­tion, sale and use of scratch bombs.

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing Tues­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, call­ing the crude ex­plo­sive de­vices a “na­tion­al nui­sance.”

In a state­ment Sat­ur­day, the Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety said the move was long await­ed and al­so urged the Gov­ern­ment to con­sid­er fur­ther re­stric­tions on the use of fire­works in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“As a next step, the ZSTT would like con­sid­er­a­tion to be giv­en on re­strict­ing the use of fire­works in res­i­den­tial and sen­si­tive ar­eas so as to min­imise the harm­ful ef­fects on peo­ple and an­i­mals.

It is well es­tab­lished that noise from fire­works can cause dis­tress, and an­i­mals have been known to in­jure them­selves,” the so­ci­ety said.

It added that dur­ing fes­tive times spe­cial pre­cau­tions are need­ed at the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo dur­ing times of fire­works dis­plays to en­sure the an­i­mals’ wel­fare.