Plastic pollution is becoming a greater threat to the animal population. Stray cows are one of the most vulnerable species when it comes to picking through openly dumped plastic waste. A sick cow was recently discovered to be storing 77 kgs of plastic waste in its stomach.
According to the report, veterinarians in Gujarat’s Anand district removed the waste from the cow’s stomach, which included ice cream cups, spoons, and plastic cups. At a veterinary hospital in Anand, a team of veterinarians performed a two-and-a-half-hour surgery.
As per the report, the sick cow was brought to the hospital by an NGO. The plastic waste removed from the cow’s stomach, according to Dr Pinesh Parikh, a member of the surgery team, is mostly garbage that people throw on the roadside after eating their meals.
Citizens, on the other hand, pay no attention to the fact that stray cows in search of food, accidentally consume plastic.
People’s bad habits have resulted in cases of cattle becoming ill after eating plastic. Every week, this veterinary hospital in Anand receives three to four cases of sick cows who ate plastic from roadside dumpsters.
“The waste varies from 10 kg to even 55-60 kg each time.” Dr Parikh, head of the Department of Veterinary and Radiology at the veterinary college affiliated with Kamdhenu University, was as saying, “We have even come across cases where cows have accidentally consumed plastic ropes that people usually throw away or dump on the roadside.”
Dr. Parikh explained how plastic waste affects stray cattle by stating that cows experience indigestion after consuming plastic. Cows’ digestion power deteriorates over time as a result of their inability to digest plastic, causing them to become ill.
“It starts to affect their health, and they sometimes die as a result of the plastic waste,” he explained.