On the weekend of August 17th, a livery yard home to more than 40 horses discovered numerous Chinese lanterns across their grazing land. This caused injury to several of the animals due to running through fences in a panic, or suffering colic brought on by stress.
The incident, posted on Farming UK, promoted responses from other landowners stating that they have also experienced issues with these lanterns landing amongst land grazed by horses and other livestock. Like balloons, sky lanterns are very often used to celebrate an occasion or a loved ones life.
Aside from the obvious concern this can cause the horses, with dry weather and dry grass these lanterns also pose a huge fire risk. Many of the lanterns also include metal wires in their construction which can also cause injury to animals who may get caught or even ingest the pieces, as well as damage to farm machinery.
In 2019, the NFU launched a campaign to urge people to email their council to ban sky lanterns on land it owns. To date 200 councils out of 333 have banned them in England and Wales, but they are still allowed to be sold and used in many areas. A total ban would mean that sky lanterns cannot be launched from anywhere in England and Wales.
Find out if your council has banned sky lanterns.
In 2021, the NFU, alongside 17 leading farming, environment, animal and fire organisations including the RSPCA and National Fire Chiefs Council, wrote to Defra to highlight the danger of sky lanterns. The coalition then met with the then Environment Minister, Jo Churchill MP. She committed to commission further research into the risks of sky lanterns.
In May 2022, the NFU launched a petition calling for support for a total ban on the sale and use of sky lanterns in England and Wales. As of 2023, that petition has over 100,000 signatures, which is the number required to be recognised by Parliament as a significant milestone, and can often signify for some progress in the support of a petition.
The petition remains open and we would encourage people to continue letting Defra know their concerns about the harms of sky lanterns by adding their signature.
