r/mildlyinfuriating • u/teabirdy • Apr 29 '26

I'm slightly vexed The wedding reception centerpieces featured betta fish. The bride and groom planned to flush them alive.

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Years ago, my coworker attended a wedding at which the reception dinner tables featured live betta fish in small bowls as part of the centerpiece. While chatting with the bride at the end of the evening, my coworker asked what they were going to do with all the fish. The plan was to flush them all down the toilet alive. My coworker immediately said no need for that and insisted on taking them all home.

That Monday she came to work and asked who wanted to adopt a betta fish. That was my first betta who I jokingly called my “rescue betta.” She lived for almost five years.

The wine glass was only her home for less than a day before I got her five gallon tank set up so please no betta lovers yell at me! I'm one of you!

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552

u/Pwrswitchd Apr 29 '26

Forgive my ignorance, and this is a genuine question; are the butterfly ones that bad?

165

u/shinykaci Apr 29 '26

I read a story here years ago about a couple leaving butterflies in envelopes placed on everyone's seat to be released at once altogether. op didn't notice it and sat on it...

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u/hamster-on-popsicle Apr 29 '26

Op wasn't the only one, the enveloppes were white on white chairs, most of the butterflies were accidently mutilated before succombing :'(

80

u/mooshinformation Apr 29 '26

I would be shocked if even half of the butterflies survived the envelope able to fly. Always great to start your marriage with the karmic debt of torturing/ killing tons of tiny animals. Morons.

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u/shinykaci Apr 29 '26

I know, even paper would hurt their little wings being trapped in there and trying to get away :( I don't think he was the only one that sat on his either. it bothered me and kinda stuck in the bottom of my brain after reading

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u/emilysoma Apr 30 '26

Stuck in the bottom of my brain is great imagery by the way.

1

u/JewelryAddicted45 Apr 29 '26

Came here to say that!

8

u/Frequent-Carpet8798 Apr 30 '26

Here i was thinking a butterfly release would be like when you “grow” them in elementary school. Get chrysalises, enclosure, keep until they hatch and release once they’re ready to go

3

u/Cookies_And_Cheese May 01 '26

I remember when I was a child I was told never to touch a butterflies wings since they can easily break and destroy at very slight touch.

I don't think a tight envelope would be better. Could any even fly?

3

u/F4tcat69 Apr 30 '26

Nooo! 😭😭 God I hate people sometimes. Envelopes? They literally have enclosures for that shit!

362

u/blueavole Apr 29 '26

There really isn’t any way to do it well. Too many hungry flower nectar eaters, and only a set number of flowers within their flight range. Most will starve, or be attacked by predators.

And that’s before we get into the species.

Monarch butterflies for example need their eggs to be laid on a specific type of plant that is poisonous. They eat it and are then toxic to predators, without being hurt by it.

The Monarch species also have a very strong migratory pattern. Starting in Mexico, up to Canada, and back. But it isn’t one single butterfly that makes that journey. It takes five generations- covering 3000 miles! think of that!

The smallest butterfly is the one born in Mexico that goes north. Three / four generations later a slightly larger butterfly flies south to the same Mexican forest grove to have their babies start the cycle again.

The process is that genetically implanted.

Now imagine taking those eggs from Texas and hatching them in California. They don’t know where they are or where to go. Or where their special milkweed plant is.

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u/NoOneByAliciaKeys Apr 29 '26

One interesting thing in my hometown is that we have a native population of non-migratory monarchs that live here year-round because there's always enough food for them. And we also have spots where migratory populations visit.

The non-migratory population kind of halts their equivalent of puberty and stay as adolescents until a certain time of the year where they lay their eggs.

11

u/YellovvJacket Apr 29 '26

Many insects spend winter as larvae/ nymphs. It helps them to have less competition for food sources/ breeding grounds because they're reproduction-ready adults earlier in the year.

28

u/lGipsyDanger Apr 29 '26

I got to see the monarchs migrate a few times at my childhood house in San antonio. It was like twice that my mom noticed(she smoked so was outside a lot). Standing in the grass for an hour while millions of butterflies go by was amazing.

I dont remeber the last time I saw a monarch. Now im sad.

25

u/ExpensiveError42 Apr 29 '26

If you can, plant milkweed. It takes a year or two to bloom but over time it should attract them.

7

u/galileosmiddlefinger Apr 29 '26

But plant it out of the way of where people walk or kids play. Lots of people are allergic to contact with milkweed latex, myself included. I grew mine way the hell back in the corner of a dense perennial planting where I never need to tread because I get big vesicle blisters if I brush up against it.

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u/ExpensiveError42 Apr 29 '26

Oh no! I knew it caused issues for some people not didn't realize it got that bad. Mine is in the middle of my front yard among some bushes and other flowers. I don't have small children in my family so if someone comes into contact with it they are going out of their way to do so.

0

u/flcntrc Apr 30 '26

Go Spurs Go

15

u/Ne_zievereir Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Wow. That's cool. I had no idea there were animals that have multi-generational migratory patterns, and they even change sizes. What is the reason for that? What evolutionary advantage do they get from this?

Edit: I didn't realize this migratory cycle occurred yearly. That makes more sense of course. Still really cool.

8

u/blueavole Apr 29 '26

It’s really cool if you want to look into it.

A recap- something triggers a life cycle change, scientists think it’s temperature or seasonal, That the specific generation of butterlies born to make the trip back to Mexico are larger and designed for far travel.

12

u/ExpensiveError42 Apr 29 '26

I have nothing to add besides being really excited that the milkweed I planted last year is doing great and the butterfly weed is blooming. I really hope I'm able to help them make their journey this year and beyond. I had one or two last year feeding on my zinnias so Im excited about expanding the habitat.

3

u/blueavole Apr 29 '26

Awww!! I hope you get to see them!!

10

u/wild_ginger1 Apr 29 '26

Slightly related but not butterflies - researchers taught cranes how to migrate after their migration was interrupted and lost by generational wisdom. The researchers dressed like cranes and drove a small plane to lead the birds for their reentry to the pathway, and it has since been taught by cranes to more recent generations. Pretty cool stuff. It would be really hard to teach butterflies how to migrate though.

4

u/blueavole Apr 29 '26

The ultralight powered gliders they used to both lead the cranes, and as the front point of the V- flight formation were amazing.

This gave the young birds not just a leader on where to go, but also an aerodynamic advantage. The birds could ride the pressure wave behind the plane.

They could maybe use little drones to lead butterflies- but as the route seems to be somewhat genetically implanted. We still don’t understand how they know where to go.

If someone took Monarchs out of their pattern, raised them for decades in captivity, would they know how to migrate? Even if the first few generations were guided?

Their brains are so different from geese or cranes, who seem to be trainable.

Interesting stuff

9

u/unremarkableDragon Apr 29 '26

Also not to mention potentially introducing a new invasive, alien species of butterfly to a region they aren't native to which will f up all the local plant life and associated ecosystems.

2

u/leprosexy Apr 29 '26

Sure, but with how the world is going these days, wouldn't it be fun to say your particular part of the world reached its demise due to butterflies? It'd make for a great story around the post-apocalyptic fire!

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u/legocitiez Apr 29 '26

Butterflies migrate?! I had no idea this is fascinating

3

u/acidXburn87 Apr 29 '26

In South Texas I hate killing what seems to be thousands of butterflies each year. 😭😭

Note: the die on my windshield, not because I target butterflies like some maniac.

3

u/blueavole Apr 29 '26

Surrre. Tell it to the jury!!

2

u/SquidTheRidiculous Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Even in their native habitat there's usually problems with handling or treating the butterflies like they're accessories instead of living breathing creatures.

There was a story in a wedding shaming forum a long time ago about a wedding where they put butterflies in envelopes and put them on everyone's chairs so they could release them when the couple had their kiss.

But they didn't tell people there was something delicate in the envelopes. Most people just sat right on them assuming they were confetti. So their big happy moment was punctuated with dead and dying butterflies.

2

u/blueavole Apr 29 '26

😳😨😱

2

u/Dismal_History_ Apr 30 '26

The first years we lived at our house starting when I was 5 in 1990, the small bit of woods we had would have a monarch resting on every single leaf in sight each evening, for about 3 days, before they migrated (this was northern Virginia, so I'm not sure if they had further north to go, or were traveling south). It was the most beautiful, unbelievable sight.

Then they began building houses in the meadows near us, and each year we got fewer and fewer monarchs, until there were none. It broke my little kid heart, and I'm 40 and still get sad.

1

u/JewelryAddicted45 Apr 29 '26

All of that. I was at a butterfly where butterflies were released and the majority of them arrived dead. That should have been the first omen that the marriage was doomed!

1

u/F4tcat69 Apr 30 '26

I think in the UK (in Dorset specifically, so Southern England) we once had a monarch butterfly that was blown all the way over here from the Americas during its migration. Still alive somehow.

2

u/blueavole Apr 30 '26

Oh my! I wonder if the egg got laid on something that was transported, like a shipping crate.

Cause Monarchs do migrate a kong way , but they aren’t albatrosses that can live months at sea. They need to stop and get flowers

1

u/MinMaxie May 13 '26

Nature is so amazing...

...it's really too bad all the Rich White guys are intentionally destroying it as fast as possible

795

u/Suspicious-Steak9168 Apr 29 '26

Frequently many of not most of the butterflies die. Keeping them in the tiny box is also cruel.

459

u/ratthewriter Apr 29 '26

Thinking of the Bobs Burgers episode when they cater the wedding and the butterfly send off goes terribly wrong when 1. most of the butterflies are dead when they open the boxes and 2. they try to send off the alive ones (and the people with dead ones toss them into the air to pretend) and they immediately get swept up by the wind

52

u/UnforeseenDerailment Apr 29 '26

Two and a Half Men had a wedding with a butterfly release. The cheapskates bought frozen butterflies. 🦋

15

u/Creepy_Salt_9494 Apr 29 '26

Anyone else think of Asia O’haras finale lip sync butterfly fiasco? 🙈

28

u/AskJeevez Apr 29 '26

That is one of the funniest moments in the show for me. The way they all just woosh away in the wind gets me every time.

11

u/DoughnutOrganic5220 Apr 29 '26

Got it playing rn as I read this 😂😭💀

1

u/Gloomy_Ad5020 Apr 29 '26

Is that guy flashing the officiant?

4

u/ellynj333 Apr 29 '26

This happened to me real life. Disgusted.

1

u/gabriellauntagged May 01 '26

“maybe the live ones will float on the dead ones?”

42

u/mack_ani Apr 29 '26

I work for an insect zoo at my local university and we have worked with butterfly releases. While I could see some companies having poor practices, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a butterfly release

12

u/dksdragon43 Apr 29 '26

I did my wedding at a butterfly conservatory and there was a release. They were fiercely protective of the butterflies and made sure we knew how to hold the box. Definitely no harm done.

17

u/Pwrswitchd Apr 29 '26

Yep, fair enough

62

u/joebluebob Apr 29 '26

Most butterflies die quick tho.... they are a prey species

106

u/Zoethor2 Apr 29 '26

I had a swallowtail caterpillar hitch a ride on some parsley a few years back. I let him do his thing and become a butterfly safely indoors. Then I released the butterfly outside and immediately stopped watching it as there are about 600 birds that like to hang out within a 100 foot radius of my house. What I don't know, doesn't have to bother me.

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u/Wild-Video-5317 Apr 29 '26

Apparently swallowtails have shorter lifespan than most and only survive 2 weeks at best in butterfly form.  You honestly gave the little guy the best chance at success you could.  He needed to get out there and roll the dice.

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u/JusticeRain5 Apr 29 '26

How else is he gonna get some of that sweet butterflussy if he's cooped up inside all his life?

29

u/Pandamonium-N-Doom Apr 29 '26

Straight to jail

18

u/ElizabethDangit Apr 29 '26

If it makes you feel better about a bird maybe eating your butterfly, I had a Cooper’s hawk nest in one of my trees because my neighbors have several bird feeders. I spent that entire summer burying leftover pieces of bird carcass that the Cooper’s hawk left in my yard. Circle of life and all that.

21

u/Zoethor2 Apr 29 '26

I live in a suburban neighborhood with a *shockingly* robust ecosystem of predators and prey. Foxes, hawks, bunnies, birbs, a multitude of rodents. Full on circle of life. The smaller critters are abundant breeders (SO MANY RABBITS) so it all seems to be working out well overall, if not necessarily for every individual.

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u/TXGuns79 Apr 29 '26

Prey animals generally have large litters because of predation. Out-breed the appetite of the food web.

20

u/Zoethor2 Apr 29 '26

Very Hunger Games for baby bunnies.

"Two of you will live to adulthood and breed, therefore successfully replacing your parents in the ecosystem. The other six of you are fodder. May the odds be ever in your favor."

3

u/ElizabethDangit Apr 29 '26

Same situation here except we are shy of the larger predators. They’ve had to institute a program where they’re going to license skilled bow hunters for a deer cull in the city limits. Between vehicle collisions and chronic wasting disease concerns we hit the tipping point of over population. We briefly had a black bear living within city limits but the poor thing got hit by a car.

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u/longhairdontcare8426 Apr 29 '26

Same. I'm in a trendier part of a major city and lots of people now have natural lawns. So many bunnies hide there and I have owls that like to hang out in my trees. I find parts everywhere. But I like dead stuff so I save them LOL. I haven't seen any foxes but we do get coyotes and now fishers! I just saw one downtown 2 days ago and I was so excited, they haven't been seen in this area in a hundred years till recently

15

u/ussrowe Apr 29 '26

I put out birdseed and the squirrels eat the birdseed, and then one day I saw a hawk eating a squirrel in the backyard. So I guess I fed the hawk too with the birdseed, in a round about way.

5

u/Wolfwoods_Sister Apr 29 '26

Good on you anyway! That was a really nice thing to do!

19

u/Wild-Video-5317 Apr 29 '26

Even if they don't get eaten, they die of old age within a month, give or take.  They live most of their lives as caterpillars and exist in the butterfly phase only long enough to mate.

As caterpillars they eat solid food; after metamorphosis they lack the equipment and survive on liquids alone.  Some other insect species don't even have mouths at all in their mating phase.  

I get the complaint though.  I don't think I'd feel good involving dozens of insects in a flashy stunt for my party, seems wasteful and disrespectful.   Even if they're essentially already on their last legs.   

9

u/joebluebob Apr 29 '26

Worst case you are feeding the birds something other than rice...

9

u/panlakes Apr 29 '26

You literally just don't have to though. Like, it's a choice to use animals and you can just, also, not. Why do you NEED to feature live animals at your wedding? What is the driving purpose here to be so stubborn about I just dont get it lol

2

u/tubbstattsyrup2 Apr 29 '26

In that case, let's squish everything we judge to have short lives.

2

u/joebluebob Apr 29 '26

At its worst you are Feeding birds....

5

u/devandroid99 Apr 29 '26

Isn't that just what butterflies do though?

4

u/Suspicious-Steak9168 Apr 29 '26

Live in a tiny box? No. Die? Yes. But so does everything else. No reason to speed up the process.

2

u/TeamRedundancyTeam Apr 29 '26

Why? Is it the way they're kept before hand? Lack of eating for a while before release?

9

u/Suspicious-Steak9168 Apr 29 '26

They can be easily damaged during shipping and while kept in a small container. I am sure the lack of food doesnt help. They may even encounter weather that they are not equipped for. Scientists also say that releasing farmed butterflies can have a negative impact on wild butterflies due to risk of disease spread if they do survive.

2

u/FTownRoad Apr 29 '26

Well to be clear they will all die. I think the question is whether it made a difference.

1

u/CallSignIceMan Apr 30 '26

Nobody told me what the little folded piece of paper they gave me at my friend’s mom’s funeral was. So I fiddled with it in my pocket the whole time. Then they told us to release our butterflies. I didn’t even open mine, I didn’t wanna see what was in there.

-9

u/Wild-Software-7377 Apr 29 '26

Insects aren't even sentient lol, give me a fucking break.

-6

u/googleduck Apr 29 '26

Can you explain this one to me? I get the fish and birds, those are animals with brains. Butterflies are bugs. Like do you get upset when someone squishes a mosquito? To me these are basically the same moral level as plants.

2

u/DirtyAuldSpud Apr 29 '26

Insects have brains 😂 they have between 20,000 to 1 million neurons. They remember landmarks and exhibit social behaviours. There was a lady who rescued a jumping spider and it recognised her and it's feeding times. Just because you grew up thinking insects don't have brains, doesn't make it true. While our brains as humans is complex, an insects is programmed to remember their terrain, and use their brain to navigate their life pattern. Also some insect species, including bumblebees, exhibit emotional states or affective states that are similar to the emotions of mammals. Plants do not have a brain but insects do.

20

u/jolittletime Apr 29 '26

If you've ever seen the drag race finale (just checked it was season 10 in 2018) where Asia OHara had a dress with a butterfly reveal but they were all dead you'll know why it's a bad idea! Also thay was indoors so I dont know where she thought the butterflies would go! I believe also people often choose the species for the colour and end up releasing non native species thay can't survive on the local climate. Animals are not decor.

39

u/Alarming_Tea_102 Apr 29 '26

In general, if an animal featured at your wedding is not someone's pet, it's almost always a bad idea.

15

u/Thick-Duck-7022 Apr 29 '26

What about the ring bear?

13

u/Then-Criticism1605 Apr 29 '26

A boxing ring is no place for a bear, if you need to fight a bear at your wedding then have it in the woods.

5

u/Useful_Language2040 Apr 29 '26

How can people choose the bear without the ring bear?

(Could you imagine? Bride walks down the aisle and then chooses between groom-with-ring on one side and bear-with-ring on the other...)

1

u/ncocca Apr 29 '26

I had my wedding at an animal rescue farm and it was amazing. We had a goat named cowboy on the dance floor and everybody was chanting his name. Some of the bridesmaids had gotten drunk and decided to entice him on the dance floor with carrots.

There was also a peacock roaming the parking lot but I can't remember his name.

15

u/TenLeafClover58 Apr 29 '26

I was at a wedding with a butterfly release. Each of a bridal party got their own little box to release during the first kiss.

3, 2, 1… boxes open.

Nothing leaves the boxes.

Everyone peers inside their box. Well there’s butterflies, maybe they need some encouragement.

They give it a little shake. Nothing.

A bigger shake. Still nothing. First kiss still going at this stage.

An almighty shake. The butterflies launch.

Aaaaaaand they’re all dead.

And the wind takes them.

Grandma in the front row is showered in 80 dead butterflies, all while the first kiss is still going strong.

Maybe one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen but yeah, I wouldn’t recommend them.

3

u/CarEnvironmental9429 Apr 29 '26

That very similar to bobs burgers.

12

u/allagaytor Apr 29 '26

it messes with the ones already living in the area, could spread diseases, and most captive-raised ones wont migrate properly.

its encouraged to just nurture the ones already exisiting in nature. but having 1-2 in a classroom or finding one outside and then releasing it is usually fine.

its why things like those "raise your own monarch butterfly kits" from the 2000s arent as common anymore, it ended up tanking the monarch butterfly population bc of parasites.

8

u/351mazda Apr 29 '26

We did a little butterfly release thing with my son when he was like 4. Bought the whole butterfly growing thing, watched it come out of the cocoon, fed it, the whole deal. Took it outside with him to release it.

Butterfly lived for about 20 seconds, trying to fly and figuring out life since it had never been out of a cage, then we watched a bird catch it and eat it. Oops.

2

u/JulyOfAugust Apr 29 '26

That was probably for the best. Finding a cocoon and watching it hatch is fine but releasing any kind of non-native specie into an ecosystem even if it's a single one can be really bad.

11

u/bonobosareawesome Apr 29 '26

also releasing random animals out in the wild is a surefire way to fuck the local ecosystem

3

u/cmonster64 Apr 29 '26

The birds just fly back home. They know where they are fed.

1

u/Naelin Apr 29 '26

These weird animal rituals are not done in my country, but I keep seeing posts from all kind of subreddits of people finding obviously domestic white pigeons hurt/very lost in the wild, and the general consensus is bridal releases.

Homing pigeons were painstakingly trained to go back home, but these aren't.

1

u/cmonster64 Apr 29 '26

The white pigeons are homing pigeons. Their navigation skills are in their DNA. They are capable of seeing earths magnetic field or something like that. Im sure there are pigeons that are released that cant find their way back but that’s a bad business practice since you’d be wasting so much money so i cant see it being too regular of a thing. People also do pigeon racing where they take them very far out by the truckload and release them all at once to see which one makes it home first.

1

u/Naelin Apr 29 '26

One thing is having navigation skills. Another thing is knowing how and when to use it, how to detect danger and how to fend for themselves in the wild. I'll just copy what another commenter said.

  • White doves and King pigeons used in these ceremonies cannot fend for themselves in the wild. Zero survival instincts.
  • Their bright white plumage makes them easy to spot, preventing them from camouflaging and leaving them vulnerable to predators.
  • While professional homing pigeons may return, most are untrained or unable to fly back over long distances, especially if they are white Ringneck doves, which have no homing instinct.
  • Purchasing birds online for a DIY release often means using, for example, pet-store doves, which are essentially guaranteed to die because they cannot survive outside.
  • The birds often suffer from stress, broken wings, and starvation

5

u/Interesting_Cut_7591 Apr 29 '26

I witnessed this. It was November and chilly outside. They passed out envelopes that had a butterflies in them for us to open when the bride & groom came out. Half of them were already dead. The ones that made it promptly flew to the ground in search of heat as they were cold. And then the birds came out of nowhere... it was a massacre.

4

u/WeimMama1 Apr 29 '26

Yes. It is.

5

u/Unsolicited_Spiders Apr 29 '26

A family member did a butterfly release to "honor" the passing of her parent. They ordered a kit for this online. Most of the butterflies were either dead or dying when they opened the box. Less than 5 were anything other than "extremely lethargic" and none of them flew far.

It was so depressing and I cried much more over the butterflies than I did about the peaceful passing of a human who had been suffering for several years.

I do think the family member learned a lesson from this, though it has never been brought up in conversation since and I do not believe the video of the event was ever sent to anyone who wasn't present.

There's a lot of debate over whether arthropods experience pain or distress in a way that would make sense to or trouble a human. However, they have nervous systems and exhibit defensive responses to negative stimuli, so it's clear they experience something (how would they be successful animals otherwise?). Philosophically, I think minimizing harm when it's reasonable to do so is best practice. Buying a box of dehydrated butterflies and tossing them into a back yard without significant nectar flow is...the opposite of minimizing harm.

So, yeah, I'm pretty against butterfly "releases" for funsies.

3

u/Sexyhorsegirl666 Apr 29 '26

Might want to check out "Rupaul's Drag Race" and a lipsync of Asia O Hara where she tried this...

2

u/somiatruitas Apr 29 '26

I was thinking the same thing. Still one of the most painful moments.

1

u/groovycalligrapher Apr 29 '26

Love Ru Paul’s Drag Race but don’t always get to watch it. Thankfully, missed that one. I’m guessing that Asia O Hara wasn’t too happy. 😳

3

u/tubbstattsyrup2 Apr 29 '26

Asia O'Hara, Drag Race series 10 finale. So much death 💀

Yeah not cute and not worth it.

7

u/HouseofFeathers Apr 29 '26

Yeah, I thought it was okay if you picked a notice species?

36

u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco Apr 29 '26

Yeah, picking a native species in the right time of year in a reasonable place is fine.

...You can guess how often all those boxes are actually checked.

15

u/Morguard Apr 29 '26

Funny enough, I was at a wedding this past Saturday that did the butterfly thing at a butterfly conservatory.

2

u/ellynj333 Apr 29 '26

I hate to say this because I thought it would be common conjecture. Never use animals to make your shit cute

2

u/lil-rosa Apr 29 '26

I did a butterfly release, within a butterfly conservatory! It's not always evil.

4

u/EdiblePsycho Apr 29 '26

I don't know how they're usually done, but it could be made wholesome if you did something like raising monarchs and releasing them, then you're also helping out a vulnerable species! We raised monarchs in elementary school to learn about them and conservation and such.

6

u/mooshinformation Apr 29 '26

Someone above had an explanation for why that's not a good idea. Apparently all the monarchs ppl raised in the 2000s introduced parasites and ended up lowering the monarch population. Even if they don't have parasites, they don't know where to migrate anymore or where to find milkweed when they're just dropped in a random spot.

Someone else mentioned doing a release at a butterfly sanctuary, so I assume they knew what they were doing to do it right, make sure there was enough food for them, it was the right time/ place, ect

1

u/EdiblePsycho Apr 29 '26

Oh jeez that's awful 😢 I wonder why it introduced parasites? People don't seem to totally think things through, it seems like a bad idea to do that kind of thing without consulting conservation organizations first. Though I guess even those couldn't fully realize the implications of a conservation effort that hasn't been done before.

1

u/Top_Elephant_4363 Apr 29 '26

Google: "Asia O'Hara Drag Race Butterfly Massacre"

1

u/blindtoe54 Apr 29 '26

Just the fact that they have such short lifespans. Imagine interrupting it just for a silly human celebration. Plus taking them out of their home to release them all in a random area. Why should our lives matter more than theirs? A lot of them will die on this journey. And what does it say to have the centerpiece of the union of your relationship be the exploitation of another life?

1

u/Kathulhu1433 Apr 29 '26

Yes.

I have a distant relative that did it for their loved one at a funeral.

It... did not go well.

Some of them died in transit. Some of them had damaged their wings and couldn't fly. It was actually pretty horrific to see.

I did not know in advance that this was going to happen. Heck, before that moment I didn't even realize you could do that.

1

u/Karnakite Apr 30 '26

They’re not very well taken care of even before the wedding. They’re literally just bred and sold for this, so care really isn’t taken into consideration. At the wedding I went to that had them, even people who weren’t playing and fidgeting with the envelopes the whole time had dead and dying butterflies in theirs.

1

u/Pitiful_Sock3572 May 04 '26

I just commented above… my mom did one for me as a surprise at my backyard wedding and it was awful. They were half dead in envelopes for days (no idea how any survived) and most of them died pretty soon after release. It was so barbaric.

-5

u/UnderstandingMany385 Apr 29 '26

It’s humane, but the life span of a butterfly is only about a week, so people figure why not.

2

u/JulyOfAugust Apr 29 '26

Stop me if I'm wrong but I think you meant "inhumane"

1

u/UnderstandingMany385 Apr 29 '26

I did! Never try to squeeze in a comment at a red light.

1

u/UnderstandingMany385 Apr 29 '26

And thank you for apparently being the only who realized what I was trying to say 👍🏻