Animals suffer harm at the hands of plastic bags in several ways. Many animals – including both terrestrial and aquatic varieties – eat plastic bags, and suffer from serious health problems once they do.
A significant number of cows, for example, die each year after eating plastic bags that end up in their grazing grounds. This has been a particularly big problem in India, where cows are numerous and trash-collection sporadic.
Upon surgical examination, many of the cows injured by this plastic plague are found to have 50 or more plastic bags in their digestive tracts.
Animals who swallow plastic bags often suffer from intestinal obstructions, which typically lead to a long, slow and painful death. Animals can also be poisoned by the chemicals used to create the bags, or from chemicals that the plastic has absorbed while making its way through the environment.
And because plastic doesn’t break down very readily in the digestive tracts of animals, it often fills their stomachs. This causes the animals to feel full, even while they slowly waste away, eventually dying from malnutrition or starvation.
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