The penalty for mass balloon release should be the same as for fly tipping

[Serencwtch]

Yet another mass balloon release local to us.
This time dozens of blue metallic balloons with plastic ribbon.
We are farmers & spent yesterday morning trying to save a calf who was found with the metallic plastic in her mouth. She choked to death slowly & painfully. We have likely lost dozens of unborn lambs as the ewes were running terrified all night by the shiny metallic litter in their field.
We are in a area of outstanding national beauty & the wildlife there won't have a farmer to save them from suffering.
It gets caught up in our crop fields, damages machinery & contaminates food crops.
Theres balloons stuck in trees from a release 2 years ago - this rubbish does not break down.

YABU - if you lose a loved one you have the right to litter the countryside, cause suffering to animals & damage farmers livelihoods

YANBU - It's the same if not worse than any other rubbish dumping & should be prosecuted

Where do these uneducated people actually think the balloons end up? Surely they don't think they go to "heaven".

I've never participated in a balloon release or witnessed one but if someone i was close to who had been devastated by the loss of a child asked me to i wouldn't start spouting of about the environment. There is a time and a place for personal views and there are times to keep your mouth shut the latter would be one of them times

So many people have no regard, nor respect for animals. It disgusts me that people truly think they’re a kind person when they demonstrate such disregard for another sentient being. Fireworks, balloon releases, dropping litter, getting rid of pets because they’ve become “inconvenient”, driving off after hitting an animal because ‘it’s only a cat or only a rabbit”….. the list goes on. Humans are so fucking selfish. The sooner we die out and give this planet back to nature the better.

@youalright
Unfortunately with views like yours, this practice will never die out unless laws are brought it to make it illegal.
Have a read about helium and how its a finite resource.
https://www.acs.org/green-chemistry-sustainability/research-innovation/endangered-elements/helium.html

I couldn't agree more.

I have written to my MP about this, though I don't expect a coherent reply anytime soon.

May I ask everyone to do the same? Write to their own MP, not to mine, obviously.

This has to have an end.

We ranch/farm in the middle of nowhere, in the American west. These balloons show up here, caught in fences, tangled in the sage brush. Many years ago I was out riding my horse and found one caught in some brush with a tag on it. The damn thing had been released from a school 348 miles away!

And if you live near the sea they kill marine animals. Please don’t release balloons. If you want to release something choose to blow bubbles

Completely agree OP, so sorry about the calf and ewes. It is so so ignorant and selfish to do this, there really is no justification.

Btw I organise funerals and memorials, we refuse to have them on our land, instead we direct them to things like tree planting as permanent memorial, we’ve planted over 100 trees in the last 5 years, I know not a huge amount but many of those families wanted balloon releases and I changed their minds

Views like mine. I agree with op and have never participated in a balloon release in my life.

Really? Because killing wildlife in often slow and painful ways is totally fine?

I have never been asked to attend one because my friends, family and acquaintances are educated and care about the environment and they’re not ‘sheep’.
Much better to say I’m uncomfortable with that and will light a candle. You know, like they used to do when in the good old fashioned way.

@youalright
You have said you would if you were asked and would not open your mouth about damage to the environment. Those are the views I am referring to.

I've never been asked. I know nobody who has done this ever. I agree with op. How many times do i have to say it.

Yes i would but I don't think i will ever be in this situation as very few people still do this so its pretty irrelevant. To me the death of a child is the worst thing that can happen to anyone if someone asked me to do pretty much anything that would help them even a little bit my answer would be yes no matter what it was.

Yeah cos the perfect way to commemorate a dead baby is to pollute the planet for the living. Talk about killing in the name of. Plant a tree or flowers or donate to a children's centre rather than create more death.

Surely you have a limit somewhere as to what you would do?

I mean I'm sure there would be somethings but not many when I'm looking into the eyes of a freshly grieving mother

We all have a line. Yours might be slaughting the family puppy so that the child has someone to accompany them into the afterlife. Mine might be not killing the local wildlife.

Ultimately that is why we need a ban so that guest aren't forced to make moral decisions at these monstrosities.

But you keep saying you would if asked. That’s the point and you don’t seem to have the intelligence to understand why balloon releases are wrong and the damage they cause.

That's a bit harsh....

I agree about fireworks. Letting them off is littering.

I would absolutely support a ban

Bubbles. Maybe bubbles are the answer. Similar idea without the choking wildlife to death

You are wrong and I don't know why you keep insisting otherwise since you say you have never actually been involved in a balloon release.
As someone above said, it does tend to be less educated people who participate

meh. I would.

I live near a zoo that had the ape house burned down because stupid twats let off chinese lanterns.

There has been enough publicity about this. I would be posting photos, videos and details of cost all over social media, getting local news and the MP involved.

If you know someone planning one of these, slap them into sense.