New Year's Eve is approaching and Tbilisi is about to erupt in fireworks. While governments of bigger cities put up elaborate, orchestrated displays, in the Georgian capital residents take pyrotechnical matters into their own hands and create a chaotic spectacle of amazing scale.

When midnight strikes, skyrockets are fired from nearly every single home in Tbilisi and for a few joyful minutes the whole city gets shrouded in a pixy dust of burning, colorful stars. Every year the star shower gets bigger and more colorful as the city tries to outdo itself, shooting its wishes and resolutions into the air, burning away the worries of the past year and welcoming a happy new one. 

But just as Tbilisians were about to light up the fuses, the head of the city's zoo staged an intervention. "We would like to ask everyone, mainly people in our neighborhood, not to use pyrotechnics, especially not in the direction of the zoological park," Zoo Director Zurab Gurielidze said at a press conference. 

He said that the annual barrage of explosive sounds and lightning causes stress, injuries and even death among his charges. In recent years, two wildebeests died – one of a heart attack while the other was stomped to death by fellow animals – on New Year's nights. 

The fireworks set off a panic in the zoo and some animals start running around chaotically in their enclosures, Gurielidze said. "The ungulates are the most problematic, as they can be quite large and can stomp over everything in their way," he said. 

Gurielidze then appeared on several television shows with pleas for his fellow Tbilisians to go easy on the fireworks this time around. He explained that the zookeepers have to give sedatives to the animals on New Year's Eve to help them get through the night. Still, some suffer injuries and lasting psychological trauma. 

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At the same time, animal rights activists started a campaign against fireworks to protect the animals – mainly cats and dogs – that roam freely in the city. "Did you know that when you throw firecrackers and launch fireworks, animals bolt in panic and some end up being hit by cars?" the Georgian Society for the Protection and Safety of Animals (GSPSA) said in a statement.

Tbilisi has a massive population of stray dogs and cats that live off the scraps of the city and have adapted to urban life. Large dogs quietly wait their turn at traffic lights and sometimes take rides on buses. Green-eyed cats keep vigil outside grocery stores, charming and guilt-tripping shoppers into sharing food.   

But it is the city's avian population that bears the brunt of the New Year fireworks extravaganza. "The night-time uproar prompts nesting birds to fly into the sky in panic. Many hit buildings and trees, and perish or suffer lasting injuries," said the GSPSA. 

As every block and district goes up in fireworks, it's hard for birds such as sparrows, doves, crows and magpies to find an escape and they end up zigzagging chaotically, often running into walls, wires and windows. Some die, others sustain injuries and still others abandon their nests, ornithologists and environmentalists say. 

Some pet owners also dread the New Year night. "For the past few years I've been ringing in the New Year in a bathtub," Maka Abashidze, a business school student, told Eurasianet. As midnight draws close, she excuses herself from the festive table set by her parents and goes into the bathroom with Lana, a four-year-old Yorkshire Terrier who is so terrified of fireworks that she once badly injured herself by running into a glass door. 

"My bathroom has no windows and you get less noise there, but still I have to hold her until this madness blows over," Abashidze said. "So at quarter to 12 or so, I wish my folks a happy New Year, then I take Lana and a glass of champagne, and lock myself in the bathroom." She places the glass on the laundry machine and climbs into the bathtub with her dog. "The walls are quite high and it is hard for Lana to jump out even if she slips out of my hands when the uproar begins," Abashidze said.

Fountains of colored stars pop up in parts of the city on regular days as well, when there is a corporate event, birthday party or a wedding, but on New Year's chemical stars rain all over the city. At this time of the year, schoolchildren take special delight in throwing tiny but extremely loud firecrackers in the streets and then running away from angry pedestrians.   

Wanton use of fireworks poses a significant safety hazard to humans as well. Last January, 87 people, including children, sustained injuries from fireworks and firecrackers. "People come in with not just burns, but also ocular and abdominal injuries," Guga Kashibadze, director of the Burn Center at Khechinashvili University, told the Ambebi.ge news site. 

He said that doctors at his clinic often have to amputate fingers damaged during unsafe launches of fireworks. Apart from causing physical injuries, mass pyrotechnics release into the air large amounts of particle pollutants and harmful gases.  

The protests of pet owners, environmentalists, zookeepers and other concerned citizens are snowballing into an increasingly vocal campaign against the fireworks. Animal Project, an activist group, recently petitioned the authorities to institute a ban. The public petition picked up 25,842 signatures in three weeks. 

Earlier this year, the political party Lelo brought to the parliamentary floor a bill that would regulate and restrict fireworks, but the initiative has fallen prey to the nation's fierce power struggles. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, refused to support a bill initiated by an opposition group and let them take credit for introducing some order to the fireworks chaos. 

The majority party said it was going to draft its own bill, but the year is nearly through and Georgia, especially its capital, is about to drown itself in fireworks. The management of the Tbilisi Zoo can only hope that the city will hear its call and let go of its obsession with fireworks. "We understand that things don't change overnight, but perhaps it is time for us to grow up?" the zoo said in a statement which added that Tbilisi animals also deserve a happy New Year.