Littering by

Emily Veloz

How It Affects Animals and

People

All kids deserve a clean and healthy place to play…this isn’t right.

Can’t return that item anymore!

Sometimes, I wonder why people won’t read… here is my answer!

Innocent animals have to deal with our actions… so sad.

This is an animals’ habitat… but the animal isn’t there- litter is.

I think a dog would like to mark his/her territory without being annoyed with a bunch of litter at his feet…

All the Earth needs is to be clean… not messy.

Wonder what cold soul could not recycle.

  Littering… how does it affect people and animals? There is one answer, but you can find out by the time it is explained. Let’s consider people first. Most of the litter goes into the oceans (that explains why they are dirty!) and about 36% of the whole world’s total food source, according to www.nature.com. Considering the fact that 9 billion tons of litter is dumped into the ocean every single year… that is a lot of food going to waste. If all of the fish and sea creatures that we eat become extinct due to our actions, the amount of food supply for many will decrease by 36%. It may not be 50%, but number counts. Soon, kids would have to feed on vegetables and not enough meat-YUCK! In fact, littering affects our drinking water. That is because not all of the litter disintegrates so the nasty garbage can harm our water!

How exactly does littering harm animals? Well, let us see! According to the RSPCA organization, they get over 7,000 phone calls every year, due to litter that somehow clings onto a curious animal’s neck, head, or even their face! The RSPCA noted a fox, whose head got stuck into a dumped wheel hub, a badger cub with a plastic can holder embedded onto his neck, and a dog who had his artery cut on a sharp piece of metal. Thousands of animals are harmed due to littering and it is not fair to them. It never was their fault! These poor and innocent animals are being killed or harmed due to human actions. As a result, littering can affect people and animals in tragic ways. So, if you have been littering almost every time that you have trash in your hand, you should think about how it can harm you and others- including animals. Littering is a worldwide problem and if everyone can try a little bit to cut down on littering, there wouldn’t be such a huge problem. Think before you act.