The monarch of the glen ...dying in a plastic web
Heartbreaking picture of stag ensnared in waste tape on Jura
A HORRIFIC picture has emerged of a stag that had to be put down after being found starving to death with its mouth covered in plastic waste.
The distressed animal had been grazing on the shores of Jura when it appears to have got its antlers stuck in the discarded tape.
It managed to travel more than a mile from the coast of the Inner Hebridean island, entangled in the plastic, before collapsing due to exhaustion.
The stag was discovered by gamekeeper Scott Muir, 32, who said it had to be put to sleep.
Mr Muir, who has lived on Jura – which has a population of just 230 – all his life, said coastal plastic pollution has worsened in the last five years or so.
Recalling his encounter with the animal, he said: ‘I was walking over the estate when I saw the plastic waste and realised there was a stag caught. I thought it was dead at first but, as I approached it, I could see his head start to move… he looked tired and stressed and he couldn’t see because the plastic was right around his antlers.
‘He wouldn’t have been able to graze either as it was right over his mouth, so he was effectively starving. He would have been down at the shore grazing on seaweed and as he has had his antlers down they have caught in the plastic banding. I think he has been there for about a week. In the end, the animal had to, sadly, be dispatched.’
Mr Muir, a volunteer with conservation group Wild Side of
Jura, added: ‘We’ve seen an increase in plastic waste on the west coast in the last five, six years. The plastic on the stag is not fishing net but plastic banding which is used in conjunction with fishing.’
The Daily Mail is campaigning against the scourge of plastic affecting our oceans, first with our pledge to get plastic bags banned and then with our Turn the Tide on Plastic initiative.
Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, said: ‘This is a sad example of the tragic effect litter and flytipping can have on our environment.
‘Not disposing of our waste properly endangers wildlife and impacts on ecosystems.’