Urge the Australian government to ban the release of balloons to save wildlife from premature deaths

Releasing balloons en masse into the sky is killing birds say scientists who have called for the practice to be banned, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Balloons are a huge threat, not only to birds, but turtles and other marine life," said Fiona Maxwell, campaigner with the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

Dr Jenn Lavers, a biologist at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies says she finds balloons "in about one in 20 of every seabirds I examine". Performing an autopsy on a shearwater, Dr Lavers extracted the remains of a purple balloon from it's gizzard.

"It was a beautiful bird, about 80 or 90 days old," she said. "But after it died and I cut it open, this purple balloon just exploded out of it."

Moreover, in a wedge-tailed shearwater's oesophagus she found the remains of another white, latex balloon.

The birds of Australian deserve to be protected from a premature death. Will you join me in urging the Australian government to ban the release of balloons en masse to help save birds and other wildlife?

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