MORE than 200 calls about wildlife affected by litter were made to the RSPCA in Hampshire during the last two years.

The charity has revealed that throughout 2020 and 2021, they received 243 calls about animals affected by litter.

The RSPCA is urging people to do their bit and join the Great British Spring Clean’s ‘Big Bag Challenge’.

A total of 119 calls were made in 2020 and 124 calls were made in 2021 in Hampshire.

Despite people being in lockdown during significant parts of those two years, the RSPCA still received on average more than 10 calls a day about animals affected by litter across the UK.

These calls included a fox cub whose head became jammed in a plastic bottle, a mother hedgehog and her baby hoglets almost thrown into a bin lorry with the discarded paddling pool they were nesting in, a large fallow deer whose antlers became entangled with old rope, and cygnet caught in discarded angling litter.

For this year’s Great British Spring Clean Challenge (March 25 to April 10), the animal welfare charity is urging people to take part in Keep Britain Tidy’s Big Bag Challenge and help protect animals by picking up any litter they see lying around as well as ensuring they take their litter home with them or disposing of it properly and responsibly.

RSPCA Scientific Officer Evie Button said: “Our staff deal with thousands of incidents every year where animals have been impacted by litter - and they’re the ones that we know of. I’m sure for every animal we’re able to help there are many that go unseen, unreported and may even lose their lives.

“Litter is one of the biggest hazards our wildlife faces today.

"It's a problem on all of our doorsteps - from city centres to the countryside and beaches - so all of us can do something to help.

"Spring is an ideal time to go on a litter-pick because it's before the breeding season when young animals such as fox cubs start getting into trouble, and litter will be more visible in hedges before the vegetation really starts growing.

"That’s why we’re calling on the public to get involved in the Great British Spring Clean to help remove litter that may endanger animals.”

As well as everyday rubbish, the RSPCA also sees many animals arriving into its care with terrible injuries caused by angling litter such as discarded fishing line and hooks to plastic netting.

Nearly 40 per cent of all litter-related calls to the RSPCA last year were about animals that had specifically become caught in fishing litter, from a seal who died after old fishing line became tangled so tightly around his mouth he could barely breath to dozens of swans who swallowed or were pierced by old fishing hooks or became entangled in fishing line.