A guest blog by Geoff Edmond, the RSCPS’s National Wildlife Officer and Inspectorate lead on litter.
When I go out for a walk, I’ll inevitably see some sort of litter where it shouldn’t be – but how many of us really care about how it got there?
Discarded plastic and other waste materials certainly shouldn’t be sitting on our verges, trapped in our hedges or blowing around our beaches but so often it is. Was this lost litter dropped where it was found or did it travel on the wind or wash down after periods of rain?
The reality is we don’t actually know where our litter’s journey started and what’s more worrying is that we won’t know where it will end. What we do know is that it shouldn’t be there and that it’s the reason we support Keep Britain Tidy in the Great British Spring Clean each year.
Not everyone thinks about the impact that even one piece of litter can have on animal welfare and the environment we live in. And not many can fully appreciate the consequences at the time of their actions, but consequences there are…
We deal with 11 litter related animal incident a day
Our animal rescuers are at the forefront of animal welfare and all too often are called upon to rescue animals that are in distress as a result of litter entanglement. A horrible and potentially deadly situation that could have easily been avoided with a little more thought and mindfulness from us humans.
Did you know? Between 2019 and 2020, our hard-working team dealt with a whopping 8,092 calls concerning animals being injured or caught up in general litter.
This is an average of 11 incidents per day. Sadly, some of these incidents will end in serious injury or death is a result. Unfortunately, I’m sure that for every animal we’re able to help, many others go unseen, unreported and may even lose their lives.
Litter can have consequences for animals in so many ways – even a single piece of litter can create a problem. The reality is that when we walk away and leave litter unattended, we just don’t know what that may mean for the next animal that wanders by.
Join the Litter Heroes Campaign today and protect your local wildlife.
