_edited.jpg){kind=small}
Balloons don’t go to Heaven. They get stuck in trees, fall down and end up in fields, and many times end up in waterways. It seems like a nice idea to release a balloon or a bunch of balloons as a message or with written notes attached to loved ones we miss. We watch them float away much in the same way we imagine the soul of our loved one floating up to heaven. But in reality, that is not what happens at all.
The strings get wrapped around branches and sometimes the necks or legs of birds and turtles and other wildlife. They get ingested and tangle inside animals’ intestines causing blockages and very painful deaths. The balloons also get ingested or inhaled like plastic bags and cause suffocation.
There are so many ways we can honor a loved one, no matter how old they are. Gun violence kills too many, but we should not honor someone by causing the death of an innocent animal.
Final Straw Foundation has published an article on the subject with great suggestions for alternative ways to celebrate or honor someone without causing harm to other lives or the environment. Click on the link below for alternative ways to include your community in the education about the effects of gun violence.