Littering is eliminating lambs in Clint

CLINT, Texas - Littering has many negative impacts, from harming the environment by causing pollution, to sickening animals, to dirtying up the landscape. Local farmers in the area have been battling the littering epidemic for as many years as they can remember, including local Clint farmer, Rudy Avila.

"Look at that, they're eating a piece of plastic right there," Avila said as he was interviewing with ABC-7.

Rudy Avila is the owner of Avila Farm. There, he raises sheep and goats and grows alfalfa, sudan, and oat hay. One side of his land is on North Loop Drive, where passerby frequently drop their trash as they drive down the road.

"We deal with it every day down in the farmlands. We get papers, plastics, bottles cans everything in the fields," he said.

The wind only amplifies how much trash local farmers see in their fields, as it blows from the roads into the fields. Avila explained how the litter is able to kill his lambs and kids [baby goats].

"Baby sheep and baby goats are just like baby children. They'll pick it up and they'll start chewing on it. They'll remove a little piece, this size," he said showing a piece of an old glove the size of a quarter, "they'll swallow it and that will get stuck in their small intestine. The inside of their small intestine is only 1/8 of an inch. It'll block it up and it'll kill them."

"Please don't throw trash away [in the street]," Avila pleaded. It's for the sake of the animals.