A post shared thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter claims that Sainsbury’s will no longer sell fireworks due to animals being frightened by the products.
Some people have long campaigned for firework sales to the general public to be banned, amid reports of animals being severely distressed by the loud noises caused during displays. Last year a petition to ban their sale to prevent harm to animals and wildlife reached more than 300,000 signatures.
However, while the news of Sainsbury’s decision to stop selling fireworks has been celebrated as a win this month by some, a spokesperson for the supermarket told Full Fact that this was, in fact, nothing new.
They said: “It’s correct that we no longer sell fireworks in our stores. We haven’t offered them since 2019.”
When we asked specifically if the decision had been made for animal welfare reasons, the spokesperson said: “We regularly review our ranges and this decision was based on a number of different factors. In this case animal welfare was one of them.”
A number of news organisations, including the BBC and Sky News also reported the fact that Sainsbury’s would no longer sell fireworks back in 2019, with an emphasis on the reaction of animal welfare campaigners. However, they did not state that the supermarket had stopped selling fireworks specifically for animal welfare reasons.