For some reason it has become popular to release helium-filled balloons to celebrate graduations, birthdays, and even memorials. Please encourage others to not do this. Balloons get caught in trees and deflate--visual pollution. Balloons are brightly colored and when shreds of the balloons are there for the taking, some end up in birds' nests, or even worse, in birds. Those who release balloons don't mean to harm wildlife, they just don't know any better. If you know of a group or person planning to do this, offer alternatives, like bags of bird seed to be be strewn about, or banners that can be put up and then taken down. Celebrations should not endanger wildlife, so let's have a party that everyone (and everything) can enjoy!
Oh, bravo marlingardener!!! Larger birds, like Pelicans and some ducks have been found to choke and die from ingesting balloons...this was and probably still is a problem in the San Francisco Bay Area. Large dead birds wash up onto the shore with balloons inside. On the occasions where i am the target of celebrations, i always tell people in advance if they are planning on having balloons please don't and then i tell them why. A balloon is after all a blown up plastic bag...not much charm there. There are so many alternatives, streamers (recyclable), confetti (recyclable), etc. I second marlingardener's suggestion
I agree 100% Jane. The thing is it's not just wildlife but farm stock too that can be adversely affected by these helium and rubber balloons. When I was a veterinary nurse there were calls to choking cows, sheep and horses where bits of the balloons had been ingested while the animals were grazing. Not all survive the experience. Also if the balloons were swallowed they could cause twisting of the gut which is extremely painful and, once again, often proved fatal. We don't need balloons to have a good time with family or friends.
I will 4th the motion. I am not a fan of balloons, helium filled or otherwise. They are dangerous to children too, if they swallow a piece they can suffocate. Balloons to not respond to the Heimlich maneuver!
I agree, us humans do so many things without thinking. When I go to the NJ shore, I take pieces of pizza and hold them up for the sea gulls to grab. Soon I have them sitting all over me and I can pick the ones out, grab them, and work on untangling the fish line and hooks off them. I can do that for hours... Why hasn't someone said something earlier about these balloons??? I have thought about how horrible and dangerous it was for years....
