REVELLERS gearing up for Halloween and Bonfire Night celebrations are being urged not to let off Chinese lanterns because of the danger to livestock and wildlife.

The paper lanterns, which are carried into the sky by hot air from fuel blocks lit inside them, can drift for miles before falling to the ground.

Farmers across Staffordshire and Cheshire have reported sheep, cattle and horses being injured or dying after eating the wire metal frames on the lanterns, while landowners say they are forced to scour fields to pick up the debris.

Councillors in the Moorlands say the lanterns cause 'slow, agonising deaths' for animals and have unanimously backed a campaign to have them banned.

Former Leek Mayor Brian Johnson said he had to cut wire from the leg of a horse after the animal got tangled in the debris from a Chinese lantern.

He said: "The wound it left was considerable."

Councillor Richard Alcock, who farms at Freehay, near Cheadle, fears the debris could have killed one of his cows last week.

He said: "Some of these lanterns have landed in my fields and they are a nuisance. I have to search through the fields to see if any have come down.

"I lost an animal the other day, which had obviously eaten something. The cow was worth £700, which I can't afford to lose."

Ipstones Councillor Linda Malyon, who put forward the motion at a full meeting of the Moorlands District Council, also raised concerns the lanterns could be hazardous to aircraft.

She said: "They are quite pretty when they are floating in the air, but it is when they come down that there is a problem.

"The metal rims can fall into fields, be mown and the strands can then get into hay and animal feed and can kill.

"The lanterns are quite big and some are up to four feet high and they are becoming more and more popular.

"I am concerned because we are coming up to Halloween and Bonfire Night. It is not as though people are letting just one off, they are letting off hundreds at a time."

Moorlands MP Karen Bradley is already working on a campaign with the National Farmers' Union to have them outlawed.

She has pledged to pass the concerns raised by councillors on to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Eunice Finney, a Staffordshire farmer who represents the Women's Food and Farming Union, welcomed the stance taken by the district council.

She said: "Chinese lanterns are hazardous. They cause fires and are harmful to livestock.

"As an organisation we have lobbied Defra, but they do not seem very keen to get them banned.

"We have had them land on our farm and my daughter's boyfriend found one on a petrol pump in Stone."

Staffordshire County Council's animal health team are also urging revellers to avoid buying them in the run-up to October 31 and November 5.