Image to shame us all , stork trapped in prison of plastic

PERCHED forlornly on a tyre on a landfill site, a stork is trapped in a plastic bag in this heartbreaking photograph that shames the world.

The once majestic bird was seen struggling in vain for more than an hour to free itself after somehow getting almost completely wrapped up in the refuse on a breezy afternoon.

Luckily for the exhausted stork, award-winning wildlife photographer John Cancalosi came to its aid and freed it from the ‘plastic prison’ after spotting it during an assignment in Andalucia, southern Spain.

American Mr Cancalosi, who is based near Washington, DC, had gone to the stinking rubbish dump, a two-hour drive inland from the coast, to photograph European white storks after hearing that they congregate there to feed on food scraps.

He had been there a week and seen other storks flying about with plastic bags trailing from their legs, when he was shocked to see the hapless creature.

‘I don’t know exactly how it became wrapped in the bag,’ he said yesterday. ‘They are picking around in the rubbish for food and it was windy so maybe the bag blew over the bird. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the whole experience was very emotional.’

Describing the rescue, he said: ‘I left the car and started wading through the mess, edging toward the trapped bird. I was surprised that it didn’t move away as I closed in. When I reached the bird’s side I was worried that it would lance me with its sword-like bill I bent down to grab the bag at the stork’s feet.

‘As I lifted the bag it filled with air and the stork suddenly flew up and was liberated. I will never forget how moved I felt as the snowwhite stork rose up into the pure blue sky, free from the squalor below. The stork was given a second life.’

The photo, taken in 2013, is one of several which the June issue of National Geographic, cover pictured, is using to highlight the impact that single-use plastic, such as straws, water bottles and bags, is having on the environment. The magazine is launching a major initiative aimed at curbing the global plastic waste crisis. The tide has turned on plastic in the wake of the Mail’s Banish the Bags campaign and the distressing scenes in David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II television series.

This newspaper has also lobbied successfully for bans on microbeads and other singleuse plastic items.

Last weekend, a 12,000-strong army of volunteers led a three-day drive to clear plastic pollution from our streets, beaches and green spaces in our Great Plastic Pick Up.