In a shocking incident, surgeons from Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University were deeply involved in a five-hour-long operation in order to clear 52 kilograms of plastic waste from the stomach of an ailing cow.
Humans are responsible for this. They should have disposed of plastic safely but instead, they are causing harm to the domestic animals by littering. It has been learnt that cow was found to have ingested massive quantities of plastic from the waste that could have proved deadly.
A report by The Hindu said, “the plastic caused severe pain to the animal and was observed to kick its stomach with its legs. Subsequently, the yield of milk also dropped.”
The surgeons took close to 5:30 hours to surgically take off the plastic from cow’s stomach.
“The incident exemplifies the threat to animals posed by plastics discarded indiscriminately by the public. Even though we have removed plastics from cows in the past, the quantity this time — 52 kg — is unprecedented,” S Balasubramanian, Director, Clinics at TANUVAS, told The Hindu.
The veterinary doctor found that plastic has occupied 75 per cent of the rumen. The rumen is one of the four chambers of the cow’s stomach.
The owner of the cow, Munirathanam had to spend only Rs 70 for operation (Rs 20 for registration and Rs 50 for the actual surgery).