Devastating reality behind ‘truly awful’ wedding trend
Butterfly releases, a ritual said to be symbolic of “new beginnings and new life”, are a popular choice for many couples getting married. But the “beautiful” act of seeing the winged insects fly up into the air is often ruined by the fact that they rarely survive.
Video transcript
- There's a devastating reality behind a viral wedding trend. Butterfly releases, a ritual said to be symbolic of new beginnings and new life, are a popular choice for many couples getting married. But the beautiful act of seeing the winged insects fly up into the air is often ruined by the fact that they rarely survive. The ritual sees the butterflies kept in an individual envelope or in a box for mass release. And when prompted are released into the air for entertainment.
A spokesperson from Bribie Island Butterfly House told Yahoo News Australia, as an organization, we don't support it. It's not very humane. If they're not transported correctly, it results in a very high mortality rate. In many cases, the butterflies die before they're even released. And many people are calling for the trend to be banned. On social media, one bride to be was slammed for asking in a wedding planning group what others thought of the trend.
Commenters quickly sent fiery responses with one claiming this is probably one of the grossest wedding ideas I've seen to date. And another said, this should be illegal. Others agreed that there are truly awful consequences for the insects trapped inside. Professor Andrew from Southern Cross University agreed the trend is weird and problematic. Not just for the safety of the animal, but for the environment as well.
He confirmed it does cause pain to the insect. And even though they're migrating butterflies quite commonly found in Australia, a change of environment could be harmful. He explained, I would anticipate that most of the individuals released aren't going to survive because they're in a different environment to where they were actually reared. There's also the potential for them not to perform as well as you'd expect because they haven't been acclimatized.
It's like if we go from being in an air conditioned room out into 38-degree heat, we get that really big impact. And for insects, that can just kill them straight away. Professor Andrew said, we really need to consider why we're using live animals just for a celebration. What do you think?
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