A British farmer’s tweet about ballon litter has gone viral and been picked up by the national press in the UK after he retrieved a foil balloon from the mouth of one of his calves.
The tweet, which was published on 2 July, read:
You might think it’s harmless fun but I’ve just had to pull a 5ft birthday balloon out of the mouth of a choking calf. The message written on the balloon ended ‘whoever gets this, share on social media’. #NathanSmithFromBelfast pic.twitter.com/dinAt4op5y
— Robert Fleming (@RabFleming81) July 2, 2019
The tweet has since been shared and liked over 3,000 times, with farmers, runners and other commentators joining the conversation to share similar pictures and stories.
The Daily Mail then ran the story, describing the timeline of events and pointing out that the balloon had flown 50 miles as it travelled from Ireland to Scotland – complete with images taken from the original Twitter thread.
Across Facebook and other social sites, that article has now been shared more than 700 times with hundreds of unmoderated below-the-line comments – many of them calling for balloons to be banned completely.
As an industry, the party trade does not support balloon releases, with EBPC, BAPIA, NABAS and a number of suppliers all educating consumers to take responsibility, to ‘not let go’ and to enjoy balloons responsibly.
