Michigan, Absolutely Do NOT Use These Halloween Decorations if You Love Animals
With Halloween just around the corner, you have probably put up all of your decorations.
Your decorations may be doing more harm than good.
If you love animals, you may want to take your decorations down.
Halloween Decoration PSA
On October 22nd, the West Michigan Wildlife Center put out a Halloween PSA.
However, this PSA is not only for people within West Michigan. It is being asked of everyone across the country.
According to the West Michigan Wildlife Center, if you have fake cobwebs outside of your house, you should take them down immediately!
"Please DO NOT use fake webbing for your outdoor decorations! Specifically the fake spider webs that are made of cotton and are stretchy/pull apart to create the web effect."
The reasoning for this PSA is that the fake webbing can cause a huge issue for animals, specifically birds.
"This type of fake webbing can be highly detrimental to wildlife. The small strings easily get caught on birds and small mammals landing and climbing on bushes, shrubs, small trees, porches, railings etc."
If the small animals try to struggle to get free from the webbing, it can wrap their bodies which can cause injuries and if they are stuck long enough, it can result in starving to death.
The West Michigan Wildlife Center also shared pictures of a bird that was affected by the webbing.
"Sadly, these webs were the reason this beautiful red bellied woodpecker died. The webs got caught around its tongue and it became stuck. They use their tongue to retrieve insects deep inside trees and need it to be able to eat properly and remain healthy."
Trigger warning for these pictures below.
So, please be cautious about how your decoration can affect the animals.
"Please help prevent this from happening again and take down any of these webs you have outdoors and please refrain from using them outdoors in the future."
While Halloween is a fun holiday to celebrate, we should still try to protect the animals and their home.
You can see the full PSA below.