Calls to save Mansfield and Ashfield animals from unnecessary suffering due to careless littering

The national animal welfare charity recently revealed it had received 7,500 calls about litter-affected animals over the past two years. In Nottinghamshire, alone, between 2020 and 2021, reports rose from 70 to 86.

In Mansfield, Chery Martins, who runs the Manfield Wildlife Centre, on Brown Avenue, has also dealt with numerous animal cases involving rubbish.

“We have had pigeons admitted with pieces of plastic bags and string wrapped around their legs, a couple of ducks that had ingested plastic causing a blockage to their digestive tract, trapped hedgehogs in discarded netting,” She said.

"A couple of young foxes had plastic beer can holders caught around their necks and a couple had their noses stuck in empty food tins.”

Discarded fishing hooks had also caused hazards, with line having to be removed from numerous ducks and swans.

"Sadly, lots die that we won't hear about. A little sparrow (pictured) had to be cut free from a hedge after it had become caught up. Sadly it lost its leg and died a few days later.” She added.

The RSPCA also reported a fox cub whose head was jammed in a plastic bottle (pictured), a mother hedgehog and her baby hoglets almost thrown into a bin lorry with the discarded paddling pool they were nesting in, a large fallow deer whose antlers became entangled with old rope, and a Cygnet (a baby swan) was caught in discarded angling litter.

Now the charity is urging people to do their bit, and join in the Keep Britain Tidy’s Spring clean ‘Big Bag Challenge’ which runs from March 25 until April 10.

They are asking people to help protect wildlife by picking up any litter lying around, as well as ensuring they take their litter home with them or disposing of it properly and responsibly.

Mansfield’s very own mini-eco warrior, five-year-old Olivia Clare, a litter ambassador at High Oakham School, who was recently featured in the Chad for her kind litter-picking campaign to help protect animals, said: “People should hold their rubbish until they see a bin or get home, the street isn’t a bin.”