BIOLOGIST: BRIDAL BUTTERFLIES BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

BIOLOGIST: BRIDAL BUTTERFLIES BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

GRAY'S RIVER, Wash. (Wireless Flash) -- First, throwing rice at a wedding was declared bad for the environment. Now, its trendy replacement -- releasing live butterflies -- is being deemed just as bad. That's according to Washington-based butterfly expert Robert Michael Pyle, author of the upcoming book "Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage" (Houghton Mifflin). Pyle says companies who ship bridal butterfly kits to wedding parties are in danger of spreading parasites from state to state which could wipe out entire colonies of butterflies. But Pyle's claims are causing a flap at companies which sell butterflies. Casie Stockton of The Butterfly Celebration in Shafter, California, claims her butterflies can't endanger others because they're raised in a controlled environment free from parasites.