Sky Lanterns and Helium Balloons
Out of sight, out of mind
Such is the case of sky lanterns and helium balloons being released. Whether in celebration or in memory of someone. In reality, setting helium balloons and sky lanterns airborne with no thought to where they land can lead to unspeakable suffering.
Animals have ingested the debris, causing damage to the throat, stomach and intestines and leading to a slow, painful death.
Marine life and birds can become entangled in the balloon ribbon or trapped inside the lantern, stopping them from moving, resulting in death.
Once this floating litter is released into the sky, it can land anywhere. While farmers or others might come across livestock and be able to save them from mistakenly ingesting a balloon, any wildlife that becomes entangled or ingests the litter will suffer a slow painful death.
Unfortunately, these are things most people don’t think about when they release helium balloons or sky lanterns.
Hundreds of balloons were released in Falkirk, June 2026 in memory of a young man.
Sky lanterns
These collections of latex, plastic, bamboo, paper, cardboard and metal wiring crash back down to earth, disturbing and damaging wildlife habitats. In the case of lanterns, the best we can hope for is that its flame has extinguished before landing. If it’s still lit, obviously this poses a major fire safety risk to landscape, animals and humans alike.
In 2023, 20 vehicles were destroyed in Cornwall because of a fire caused by a sky lantern which landed, still lit, on one of them. Thankfully the damage was only financial. Such was not the case in Germany.
In 2020, dozens of animals were killed at a zoo in Krefeld, Germany in a fire caused by a lit sky lantern landing in an enclosure at New Year.
In 2013, it took 200 firefighters 3 days to extinguish a fire caused at Smethwick Plastic Recycling Plant in England, which was caused by a lit sky lantern landing on its roof.
In 2013 again, in Washington, USA, a sky lantern caused a 500-acre wildfire, taking 100 firefighters to put out. And in South Carolina, a lantern landed on a dry bush, causing 800 acres of habitat to burn.
By any standard, the release of these man-made objects into the sky, in the knowledge that they will land somewhere unknown, can only be described as littering. Which is illegal on its own.
Lanterns, essentially mini hot air balloons, can fly up to 3,000ft and travel for up to 30 minutes on the wind before crashing back to the ground. We have no control over where that will be.
Helium Balloons
Balloons can float on the air for days. There is no control over where they go. What we do know is - they always land somewhere.
And once they do - not only is it littering, but they become a danger to wildlife, farmed animals or companion animals that may happen to find them first.
Image credit: New England Aquarium
Image credit: countingcoots.blogspot.co.ukThe turtle is seen here with the string passing through its body and a piece of the purple balloon still attached. Gull ingesting a balloon. If ingested, the balloon can do irreparable and often fatal damage to an animal’s oesophagus and digestive tract and can cause suffocation
Such examples include:
A young calf suffocated on a deflated helium balloon which had landed in its enclosure on a farm in Kent in 2015 - see image on right. The farm owners, the Burden family, have also said they have lost lambs in the same way. Such tragedy is entirely preventable.
A 5ft birthday balloon released in Belfast, Northern Ireland, travelled 50 miles across the sea to Glenluce, Scotland, onto farmland where it was picked up by a young calf. Luckily, the farmer noticed his animal choking in time to pull the balloon out.
Not as lucky was a bullock found dead on a farm in County Durham, whose post mortem revealed a slow and painful death caused by blockage of the oesophagus by a helium balloon.
These are just a few of the cases we know about. There are countless wild animals that have not been found that have suffered horribly from either ingesting or getting tangled in the aftermath of people’s ill thought celebrations with airborne litter.
Our campaign
We are working towards ensuring nationwide support from Scottish local councils in favour of public restrictions on the release of sky lanterns and balloons on council-owned land and property.
Using this collective impetus, we have approached the Scottish Government to convince them that the local authorities are in favour of a national ban and have done all they can to eliminate these potential risks to animal wellbeing and the natural environment.
This campaign has already seen some success with a ban being adopted by numerous councils in Scotland.
You can help us rid Scotland of these needless floating threats by lobbying your MSP and the government.
We are also petitioning venues that host events that might involve the release of balloons or sky lantern, asking them to sign up for our pledge to be “Animal Friendly” venues. Contact us if you know a venue that we should approach!
Please share our posts on social media to help educate others, and consider donating towards our campaign, or signing up to join our efforts. You can find out how at the links below:
