Harefield Gazette

Deer choking on plastic litter left by park visitors

POLICE RELEASE PHOTO IN A BID TO GET PEOPLE TO TAKE RUBBISH HOME

- By FINN BYRNE

POLICE have released a picture of deer eating from bins in an image used to convince people to take their rubbish home from London parks.

Currently, there are two parks in London which have a deer population and these green spaces are both in Richmond.

Bushy Park and Richmond Park house around 950 deer combined.

In an attempt to urge people to take their rubbish home with them, the Royal Park’s police force published a picture which showed deer eating from bin bags on the floor.

In the image, six of the protected species stand around eating from the bin and police hoped this would encourage people to think twice about littering.

The Royal Parks even said that each year more than a dozen deer and other wildlife are found to have choked on litter, mainly plastic.

A tweet from the Royal Parks Police unit said: “When visiting #BushyPark and #RichmondPa­rk, please consider the consequenc­es of failing to dispose of litter within the bins provided by @ theroyalpa­rks.

“Every year deer and other wildlife choke on discarded rubbish. If the bins are full, please take your rubbish home with you.”

A lot of people were saddened by the images and blamed humans for ruining the parks for local wildlife.

Surprising­ly, instead of blaming each other, many people thought the picture actually showed a lack of action from those who are tasked with removing the bins. The bins eaten out of are clearly full and some commenters believed these should have been removed to avoid this situation.

One man said: “Bigger bins and emptied more often would be part of the solution.”

Another person thought the same and said: “Bins are regularly full. Perhaps more bins would also be part of the solution.”

However, other people noted that if the bins are full you should take litter home with you.

The Royal Parks said that if you can see a bin is full then you should bring the rubbish back home with you and get rid of it appropriat­ely.

This was supported by one commenter, who said: “People should take their litter home with them. Especially if bins are full. They seem to have no trouble bringing it in.”

 ?? ?? The picture of the deer eating from bin bags was used by the police
The picture of the deer eating from bin bags was used by the police
 ?? ?? Bushy Park has around 320 red and fallow deer on its grounds
Bushy Park has around 320 red and fallow deer on its grounds

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