Dangers of Plastic to Animals

While plastic has enhanced the quality of human life with its inventions, plastic has detrimental effects on the environment and the animals within. Plastic plumbing has added years to your pipes; other common uses of plastic are bumpers on cars, diapers, plastic soda bottles, storage containers, the siding on your home and plastic bags. With all of the recent advancements in plastic, there is one major problem: the plastic does not break down.

Suffocation

• Plastic bags can cause death to animals if they become trapped.

  Suffocation of animals is a big problem that is caused by plastic. Wild animals prey at night for food, rummaging through our garbage stored outside in containers. They have to first tear open our garbage bags to get to the food inside. Some chew through, ingesting the plastic, some tear through and some even get caught in them, suffering a slow suffocation. Plastic bags in the home have also played a role in harming our animals. While it is cute to see your cat playing in and out of the plastic bag, it would not take long for its air supply to be cut off if the cat were to become trapped in the bag.

Strangulation

• Ducks can become trapped in plastic rings and perish.

  Plastic rings, such as those used to hold six packs of soda or beer, can become wrapped around an animal's neck causing a slow, suffering death. To prevent these incidents, slice the rings with a knife or cut them with scissors before you toss them in the garbage. It is no surprise that these rings end up in the ocean every year and animals get trapped and strangled.

Ingestion

• Plastic bags do not decompose and can cause many animal deaths.

  Ingesting plastic can be just as detrimental, especially if the plastic does not pass through the animal's digestive system and to the animal's feces. The plastic will remain in the animal's stomach, causing adverse health effects and eventually death. The destruction does not stop there however, due to the components making up the plastic bag and the inability for it to break down, the animals, mammals, seabirds and many more species continue to die because once the bodies of these animals, mammals and sea birds begins to decay, they once again expose the plastic to yet another victim, creating an endless cycle of destruction.