BENGALURU: Mindless disposal of garbage in the city is a threat to the lives of stray animals.
Cattle, cats and dogs feed on plastic bags that trash comes wrapped in and sometimes choke to death, animal activists say.
A doctor from Government Veterinary Hospital, Mysore Road, on condition of anonymity, said 15 to 20 cows are brought to the hospital every month, with kilos of plastic bags in the stomach.
Most of them, he says, are from the markets in Kalasipalayam, Madivala, Chamarajpet, VV Puram and Cottonpet.
“Owners let cattle feed off fruits and vegetables at garbage bins. When the animals cannot tear the plastic bags they are covered in, they eat them whole,” he says.
The plastic gets accumulated in the cow’s rumen, the largest chamber in its stomach, the veterinarian explains.
While 15 to 20 cases a month may seem like a big number, it has come down in the past 10 years, he adds, attributing it to increasing awareness among cattle owners.
“When the amount of plastic in a cow’s stomach increases, the amount of food it consumes decreases. This eventually leads to reduced milk production,” he explains.
The vet claims to have treated cows with 50-70 kg of plastic in the stomach. “We have even found blades, nails and iron pieces,” he says.
N Umesh, lawyer and officer at Animal Welfare Board of India, observes that it is cows that are most affected.
“The owner should accompany the cattle as they go around and never let them feed on plastic,” he suggests.
An animal undergoes a lot of pain as its stomach gets bloated due to the consumption of plastic, says Vinay Moray from Sarvodaya Sevabhavi Samstha, a city-based NGO.
He recalls the time he witnessed a cow being operated on. “I don’t know how much plastic the doctors removed. But thankfully, the cow survived,” he says.
“We are the culprits. We humans are responsible for doing this to the cows,” he adds.
Sanober Bharucha, honorary president and trustee, CUPA, says sometimes dogs, cats and other animals get their heads stuck in plastic containers which are disposed of along with waste.
“They panic and run helter-skelter, sometimes ending up hurting themselves. It takes days to catch hold of them and remove the container off their neck,” she says.
Besides bags, plastic vessels too need to be disposed of carefully, she advises.
Bharucha further says even cloth bags, when consumed by animals, could have adverse health effects.
It’s Bad For Us Too
Prashanth G, physician and associate professor, explains that plastics are made of hydrocarbons and hence are carcinogenic. “When people consume the meat of the animals that fed on plastic, the hydrocarbons activate an enzyme called telomerase, which causes uncontrolled division of cells or mutations. This can lead to cancer,” he says.