BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Many see balloon releases as a way to honor loved ones, but wildlife specialists and advocates say they cause more harm than good. One bill looks to criminalize balloon releases as a deterrent.

“If you’re harming the environment, then you should pay,” Humane Society of Louisiana Director Jeff Dorson said.

Dorson says he recently heard about the bill that would criminalize balloon releases and says the Humane Society is all for it.

“Most people would think that that’s no big deal. But actually it has very negative long-lasting impact on our environment and animals,” Dorson said.

Dorson says animals will get entangled in balloon strings, which can cause constriction and death.

“Certain sea turtles like leatherbacks actually see the balloon as a jellyfish, as well as some of the other species, that’s some of their primary diets and they’ll ingest those and it can cause an obstruction and often you don’t know until you find dead turtles and you do a necropsy which is the animal version of an autopsy to find that that had happened,” Wildlife Hospital of Louisiana Director Mark Mitchell said.

Mitchell says the hospital at LSU Vet Med sees animals from as close as the LSU Lakes come in with injuries related to balloons.

“We see about 1,400 cases a year and pretty much all of our cases are the result of some negative encounter with human beings, from gunshots to hit by vehicles to flying into buildings. We see those types of entanglements probably not a huge number of cases but enough cases that overtime it really does build up,” Mitchell said.

Both Mitchell and Dorson say there are other ways to honor and memorialize loved ones without harming the environment.

“It’s really important to cherish the honor of other folks, but there are better ways to do that. The world is always going to be in need of trees, plant a tree, that tree is going to help with carbon dioxide, it’s going to convert and make more oxygen it’s a beautiful thing that way. I think there are other ways to honor people,” Mitchell said.

Bill 581 prohibits anyone over 16 from releasing balloons and would fine anyone involved in a release up to $150 for the first offense and up to $500 for the third. Dorson says he is feeling confident the bill will make it to the governor’s desk.

“We want to educate people that this bill is useful. It deters people and educates them why this seemingly harmless balloon release actually causes harm on the back end that people don’t realize,” Dorson said.

Bill 581 will be heard in the Natural Resource and Environment Committee this Wednesday, April 16.

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