A father who lost his pet hawk due to the stress it suffered caused by fireworks is urging people to go to events instead of using fireworks at home.

Mike Warner, 51, said he felt "empty" and "lost" after his Harris Hawk died in the prime of its life because of a "ridiculously loud" fireworks display.

Mr Warner, who owned the 15 year-old bird since September, said: "The fireworks have been going off for three weeks now, and the ones on Saturday were horrifically loud.

"The fireworks were so loud they were like the ones used at events, I'm pretty sure they're not legal to purchase."

The father of three is adamant it was the shock from the fireworks that killed his beloved hawk.

He said: "There's no other explanation."

They can live to up to 25 years in captivity so Shadow was in the prime of his life.

"People have been saying to have a post-mortem done to prove he was killed by the noise, but it'll cost £200 and it won't bring him back.

"He'd been behaving completely normal, there was not a single other factor that was different or off, the only change was the fireworks.

"It's just the fireworks that can explain his death."

Shadow the Harris Hawk died due to the stress

Like many animal owners, Mr Warner had made preparations to ensure his bird was safe and protected from fireworks on bonfire night.

"He'd been alright on bonfire night, a bit anxious at most but there were no signs of stress," he added.

However, he said that he had no way to prepare for people setting off fireworks on other nights.

He said: "You expect there to be fireworks on and around Bonfire night, the weekend before and after maybe, but definitely not a period of three weeks.

"The week after bonfire night it was pretty quiet so I wasn't expecting there to be any at the weekend.

"You can't prepare yourself for every single night, and what if you go out one night and you're not in?

"There's a lot of greenery and open spaces around us so there's no protection from buildings meaning that the fireworks were even louder.

"The loudness was just ridiculous.

Mike he felt "empty" and "lost" after his Harris Hawk died.

"The fireworks were going off for around 90 minutes in the early evening."

Mr Warner, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, is now calling for other shops to follow in Sainsbury's footsteps after they recently announced they wouldn't be selling fireworks to members of the public.

He said: "November the 5th is fine, we're always going to have fireworks.

"But I think people should go to events, not do their own.

"At least with events people can plan when fireworks will be going off, and events are cheaper than buying your own fireworks anyway.

"In Italy they have noiseless fireworks, so why can't we do that?"

Mr Warner says he and his daughters plan to have their beloved bird cremated and are unlikely to get another bird anytime soon.