Balloons can kill

I love a celebration as long as it doesn’t include releasing balloons into the air, for I know that eventually they will fall back to the ground, often into our ocean. In the ocean, turtles, dolphins, whales and seabirds mistake the deflated balloon for squid, they swallow it and choke to death.

I congratulate Susana Baker, CEO of Art Experience, but ask her and everyone else who plans a celebration to please do it without balloons. You will save our ocean, rivers and lakes from pollution and protect precious wildlife from choking to death.

This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Balloons can kill."