Heartbreaking photo that shows why you MUST sign up for our Great Plastic Pick Up today

IT is a pitiful sight on such a majestic creature and a stark example of Britain’s plastic blight.

This wild stag with a black bag entwined around its antlers is just one reason to join the Mail’s Great Plastic Pick Up from May 11 to 13.

By yesterday, 1,202 people had already signed up while 137 events had been planned to help combat the tide of litter.

Red deer stags, which have been dubbed the Monarch of the Glen, are the country’s largest native wild mammal.

This one was pictured at a sanctuary in Baronsdown, Somerset, run by the League Against Cruel Sports with the plastic which is believed to be part of discarded silage wrap from a nearby farm.

Paul Tillsley, the charity’s head of conservation, said becoming entangled in litter can sometimes be deadly for the animals.

‘Stags in particular get their antlers caught up in all sorts of rubbish in the countryside,’ he said. ‘There’s lots of it floating around in the country.

‘But we do get cases of deer getting caught up in plastic – and they can’t escape – and it can prove fatal.’

The photo has prompted calls from the League for farms to make better use of plastic recycling services or for biodegradable materials to be used instead. Director of campaigns Chris Luffingham said: ‘Photos like this hit home how we need to cut back on plastic materials to benefit the environment and the wildlife living there.

‘It’s not just our oceans being poisoned by plastic. The good news is this stag will naturally shed its antlers during April so for once we have a happy ending.’

Baronsdown comprises around 200 acres of pasture and woodland on the edge of Exmoor. It is kept as a wildlife sanctuary so the deer are not farmed and the land is unfenced, allowing animals to come and go at will.

The red deer is the UK’s largest land mammal with stags standing around 6.5ft high to the tops of their antlers.

The species was extinct across much of England, Wales and lowland Scotland by the late 1700s owing to deforestation and human disturbance.

It has since revived and red deer are most widespread on moorland but they are also found in woodland and farmland fringes.

The animals can cause damage to forestry and agricultural crops as they have no natural predators.

nMichael Gove will urge senior figures in Premier League football, swimming and ocean sailing to cut plastic waste from their events, including hundreds of thousands of single-use bottles.

The Environment Secretary is asking them to help stop the litter getting into oceans when he hosts a meeting with sports leaders as part of this week’s Commonwealth gathering in London.

‘Photos like this hit home’