Two New Hampshire facilities—the Visiting Nurse Home Care & Hospice of Carroll County and the Evergreen Institute for Wellness—are considering releasing dozens of butterflies to commemorate lost loved ones at the Be Kind Festival in North Conway, New Hampshire, on Saturday, May 18. PETA appealed to the organizations' sense of compassion and prudence in asking that they ditch any such plans, but to no apparent avail. We need your voice now!
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4845
Butterfly releases are extremely cruel. Shipped in boxes or envelopes, often over long distances, many butterflies are crushed or die from exposure during transit. Upon release, many survivors struggle to take flight or simply fall to the ground. But their ordeal begins when they are caught in the wild or bred on farms where they are deprived of any semblance of a natural life. Butterfly releases are often falsely touted as a conservation measure, when in reality, those that manage to fly away will die shortly after release because they are "relocated" to unsuitable or unfamiliar environments. And these nonnative survivors can spread disease to local insect populations as well as to local vegetation during pollination.
Please urge the organizations to take butterfly releases off the table. And spread this alert far and wide!
Please keep all correspondence polite, as anything less will hurt our efforts.
Please Reconsider the Butterfly Release!
I was horrified to learn that the Visiting Nurse Home Care & Hospice of Carroll County and the Evergreen Institute for Wellness are considering releasing dozens of butterflies at the Be Kind Festival.
Animals used in these events are either caught in the wild or bred on farms where they are deprived of a natural life. They are then packed up and shipped around the country. Many don't survive this ordeal--those who do and are released don't live long as a result of being "relocated" to unsuitable or unfamiliar environments. In the meantime, they can pose a risk to local vegetation during pollination and to native insect populations by spreading disease.
I implore you to cancel this cruel event and replace it with a humane alternative. It is the right thing to do.
Thank you for considering my comments.
