animals eating plastic – photos

From the Plastic Is Rubbish Flickr group

Thanks to  Harry Shuldman forthis great picture …..

 In his own words… “squirrel in Wash. Sq. Park forcing a wadded up plastic bag down its throat. I tried to shoo him away to stop him from eating the bag, but he was determined to finish it. This is why you need to throw your trash in the trash!”

Of course we would say boycott the filthy stuff.

Every year plastic is implicated in the death and crippling of animals worldwide

Check out the Flickr Plastic Is Rubbish photo pool.. for some really fantastic pictures of plastic polltuion.

More dirty pictures can be found here –  plastic pollution picture index

Boycott Plastic

Check out these plastic-free products sourced as part of our plastic boycott and listed in the Plastic-free Resource Index

Click here to know more about us, plastic the blog

From elephants to plankton – plastic kills

Plastic has been implicated in the deaths of numerous domestic and wild animals everything from camels to elephants, birds to whales and more are have been found with massive amounts of plastic in their stomachs … and the problem just got a whole lot worse.

Micro bits of plastic may be killing teeny, tiny beasties.

Traditional plastics degrade rather than biodegrade, which means they simply break up and fall apart into smaller pieces. The plastic has not changed its structure as such – merely fragmented. And it seems the process can continue indefinitely. Particles of plastic of 20 microns in diameter (a width thinner than a human hair) have been identified. These particles are called micro plastics and are being found in the oceans in ever-increasing quantities.

College of the Atlantic senior Marina Garland has been studying the problem.

“According to Garland, lab studies have been conducted indicating that aquatic microorganisms such as plankton can also mistake micro plastic particles for food and subsequently be killed by the adverse effects of the particle on the organism’s digestive tract. Additionally, said Garland, various toxins are known to cling to plastic particles through a process known as adsorption. As a result, plastic flotsam collected from oceans is often a concentrated source for such toxic chemicals as the pesticide DDT. Microorganisms that ingest the toxic plastic particles are often consumed by larger organisms, which then become toxic themselves. The concentration of toxicity in marine organisms continues to increase at the higher levels of the food chain through a process known as biomagnification.”

Read more here

Higher levels of the food chain –does that mean fish? Does that mean me? Oh dear!

More information

A study into micro plastics in the sea by Dr. Thompson who has been researching this for years.

Find the latest reports on killer plastic and animals here.

Just a few of the reasons why we ….

Boycott Plastic

Check out these plastic-free products sourced as part of our plastic boycott and listed in the Plastic-free Resource Index

Click here to know more about us, plastic the blog

Plastic Chickens Will Come Home to Roost

The grass verges of Kompot, Cambodia, are littered with plastic including chunks of polystyrene – that styrofoam to you Yanks.

Chickens it seems love to eat polystyrene

“Come on Pam” I hear you say “I know chickens are dumb but polystyrene?”

Hey – I saw them with my own eyes. And I had my camera. Here’s the proof…

Chicken thinks……”See white thing. Must be food. Break it down into smaller pieces. Yum yum yum”

Needles to say eating plastic is not good for chickens. They think they have had a good meal because they feel full but off course plastic has no nutritional value. Every year hundreds of birds starve to death because they bulked out their diet with plastic trash.

And it is worth bearing in mind that what goes into the chicken goes into you. Check out some not so tasty polystyrene facts right here

Plastic is implicated in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of animals.

This is why I boycott plastic.

Want to find travel related plastic free tips? Check out the travel category

Stay at home type? Check out my range of U.K. based plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

one for sorrow

A large Sugar Gum tree branch fell down in the local school over summer. I had a look and in the branches was a dead magpie and a nest. There was plastic tangled around the magpie’s foot. It looks as though the parents used some plastic in the building of the nest. When the youngster grew up he became tangled and couldn’t fly. He must have starved to death, hanging upside down by his foot.

words and photo Originally uploaded by Geoffmo

From the Plastic is Rubbish photo group have a look and add your own nasty pictures.

and you can add to or  fan the Planet trash face book page.

Killer Plastic – Dead & Deformed Animals

Plastic has been implicated in the deaths and crippling of these species and many more…
Turtle deformed by plastic
Fulmer Seabirds
Cows

Cuviers Beaked Whale

Camels

Albatross

Elephants

Minke Whale

Leather back turtles

Green turtle (Uchida. 1990; Balazs 1985; Meylan 1978)

Loggerhead turtle (Plotkin and Amos 1990; Bjorndal and Bolten. 1994)

Hawksbill turtle (Teas and Witzell. 1994; Hartog 1980)

Leatherback turtle (Balazs. 1985; Sadove and Morreale. 1990)

Black footed Albatross (Sileo et al 1990)

Northern Fulmar (van Franeker. 1985. 2003. 2005)

Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull (Day et al. 1985)

Harbour Porpoise (Walker and Coe. 1990)

Common Dolphin. (Walker and Coe. 1990)

Bottlenose Dolphin. (Walker and Coe. 1990)

Risso’s Dolphin. (Walker and Coe. 1990)

Northern Right Whale (Walker and Coe. 1990)

Pygmy Sperm Whale (Tarpley. 1990)

Blackfin tuna (Manooch and Mason. 1983)

Find the latest reports on killer plastic and animals here.

h3>Just a few of the reasons why we ….

Boycott Plastic

Check out these plastic-free products sourced as part of our plastic boycott and listed in the Plastic-free Resource Index

Click here to know more about us, plastic the blog

Camel made plastic rocks

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

Hundreds of camels die each year from ingesting plastic bags left behind in the desert, the UAE’s top veterinarian said, calling on people to stop polluting the environment, press reports said on Thursday.

“Every day we have a camel that has died in a camel camp. One in every two camels dies from plastic,” Dr. Ulrich Wernery, scientific director at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in Dubai told English-language daily Gulf News.

Rocks of calcified plastic weighing up to 60 kilograms are found in camel stomachs every day, said Wernery, whose clinic conducts hundreds of post-mortems on camels, gazelles, sheep and cows.

Wernery said the curious animals nibble on plastic bags that are thrown from car windows or dumped in the desert by campers and day-trippers.

The veteran animal doctor told Gulf News that the animals ingest plastic bags and ropes which then calcify in their stomach. The heavy rocks or balls fill up the stomach and make it impossible for the animals to eat, causing them to eventually die of starvation.

“Camel calves are the worst affected because they are so curious,” he added.

Calling for an end to the “fatal pollution,” Wernery said residents must stop polluting the desert with plastic.

“I’ve been here for twenty years and first noticed this about fifteen years ago,” said Wernery, adding that the situation is getting worse by the year.

Wernery said he was shocked after a recent visit to a desert area in the northern UAE emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, where owners had dumped the bodies of animals that had died from plastic ingestion.

“I counted more than 30 carcasses and I named the place ‘Death Valley’,” he said.

Taken fromalarabiya

Camel sitting in the trash next to the Giza Pyramids

Camel sitting in the trash next to the Giza Pyramids

Originally uploaded by **Shon**

Love the Leatherbacks

Leatherback sea turtle, South America, French Guiana
Originally uploaded by ~Steph~

Get your self a reusable shopping bag …

Turtles. particularly leatherback turtles; the most commonly seen turtles in UK waters. are especially at risk from plastic bag ingestion. as these bags. especially white or clear shopping bags closely resemble jellyfish. their primary prey. when suspended in the water column.

Plastic bags along with sheeting and plastic pieces are the predominant synthetic items found in the stomachs of turtles. An autopsy of a dead leatherback turtle washed up in Scotland in December 1994 reported that it had died as a result of starvation. caused by primary obstruction of the digestive tract by ingested plastic and metal litter. There was also a plastic bag lodged 40cm down the oesophagus (Godley et al. 1998).

A leatherback. washed ashore in Galloway in December 1998. was found in very poor condition with plastic bags obstructing its alimentary tract. The blockage included 1 white plastic bag. 1 black plastic bin liner. 3 transparent plastic bags. 1 green plastic bag. and 1 transparent plastic bag for chicken meat packaged by a US company.

Another leatherback found dead on Harlech beach in Wales in September 1988 had a piece of plastic blocking the entrance to the small intestine. and an autopsy established this could have contributed to the animal’s death (Eckert and Luginbuhl. 1988).

A study of dead stranded sea turtles on the coast of Brazil from 1997 to 1998 found the main items ingested were plastic bags. Of the 30 green turtles examined. white/transparent plastic bags were recorded in 14 (47%) of the green turtles found. Ingestion of anthropogenic debris accounted for the death of 4 (13.2%) of the green turtles examined (Bugoni et al. 2001).

Taken from adopt a beach

Latest reports on animal deaths can be found here plastic kills animals

Reduce your plastic waste – find lots of other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Ate something that disagreed with him??

Cuviers Beaked Whale (2)

Originally uploaded by Dennis@Stromness

The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust took various skin and blubber samples and removed the stomach for further study by the Scottish Agricultural College. On initial removal it was found that the entrance to the stomach was completely blocked with a cylinder of tightly packed shredded black plastic binliner bags and fishing twine.

It is believed that this made it difficult for the animal to forage and feed effectively. This would have a biologically significant impact on the animal’s ability to survive. Full analysis of the stomach contents is currently being undertaken. Cuviers Beaked whales usually prey on squid and catch their prey through the action of suction. It is believed that Cuviers Beaked whales mistake plastic bags in the water column for their prey species squid and ingest them.

In previous years a number of Cuviers Beaked whales stranded in Scotland have been found to have plastic bags in their stomachs. For any more details on this case please contact the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust at 28 Main Street. Tobermory. Isle of Mull. Scotland. PA75 6NU. 01688 302620. email info@hwdt.org”

Reduce your pastic waste – find lots of other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

Murder of Minke Whales

 

In April 2002 a dead Minke whale washed up on the Normandy coast. An investigation found its stomach contained 800g of plastic bags and packaging including two English supermarket plastic bags (GECC. 2002).

Why not take your own bag shopping and let the whales live — just a thought.

Latest reports on animal deaths can be found here plastic kills animals

Reduce your pastic waste – find lots of other plastic free products with the >>>A-Z<<< plastic free index

On the other hand why bother – if  the bgs dont get them,  the japanese government will …

“The Japanese government whaling fleet has left its home port of Shimonoseki for its biggest hunt since the 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

The fleet plans to kill more than 1000 whales in the Southern Ocean, including 50 endangered fin whales, 50 threatened humpback whales and 935 minke whales.

Despite claims that the Japanese are conducting a “research project,” the whale hunt isn’t science. The International Whaling Commission has said the data the whalers gather isn’t helpful, and virtually everything the Japanese will learn by harpooning the whales could be learned by non-lethal means.

Greenpeace executive director Steve Shallhorn says, “The whaling program threatens Australia’s $300 million dollar a year whale-watching industry. Australian and international marine scientists have already established that we can find out everything we need to know about whales without killing them.”

The whale hunt takes money from Japanese taxpayers and robs other countries of tourism income. The threatened humpbacks targeted by the whalers are part of thriving Pacific whale watching industries”

Words and image from Whales at Eden. Originally uploaded by raphie

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