Disposable mask-users are being asked to bin their face-coverings when they are finished with them. The plea comes after a dog was recently taken into care for swallowing a discarded face-mask on the street.
If there's one thing that really grinds our gears here at Family Friendly HQ, it's people who litter. Seriously - how hard is it to put your rubbish into a bin? And now with face coverings pretty much mandatory wherever you go, it's disappointing to see disposable masks beginning to litter our streets these days too.
One important factor to be aware of in all this, is that a dog may attempt to gulp down a disposable mask if he or she gets the chance. And this unfortunately happened to one dog owner of a Cocker Spaniel in Scotland, named Kobe.
Explaining the situation in a Facebook post, the Small Animal Hospital at the University of Glasgow highlighted how they dealt with Kobe's unfortunate situation, and how the littering of a face mask led to him falling ill. But don't worry, it all worked out well for the doggie in the end.
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"Kobe was out for an afternoon walk when he spotted a discarded face mask and wolfed it down. Luckily, his owner recognised the risk of this causing damage to his gastro-intestinal tract and brought him straight to our Out of Hours Emergency Service.
"An x-ray was taken to check if the mask contained a nose wire, as this increases the risk of complications – it did, but since this appeared small and flexible our team opted to make Kobe vomit in the hope of retrieving the mask.
"Kobe was given an injection to make him sick, and fortunately the face mask was brought back up again. You can see from Kobe’s sad expression that this was not a fun experience, but happily, there was no serious damage caused in his case.
"A good reminder that littering is not only bad for our environment but poses a danger to our pets too.
"Thank you to Kobe’s owner for allowing us to share his case and to our Out of Hours Emergency Service for writing his story and for all the essential work they do."
At the time of writing, the Facebook post has received nearly 2,000 shares and nearly 1,000 reactions to poor Kobe's ordeal. There have been over 100 comments made on the post, from readers who are voicing their annoyance at people who litter the ground with face-coverings in the age that we are living in.
One comment said: "Litter is bad enough, but dropping a face mask during a pandemic is much more serious, just makes me so mad how some people are selfish and mindless."
