To help animals, Winnipeg girl advocates for removing ear loops on disposable masks

A Winnipeg girl is reminding people tear theloops on their face masks before throwing them in the trash.

Madeline Somers, 12, was at daycare recently when she saw large bins of trash filled with disposable masks many of which still had the ear loops attached to the face covering portion of the mask. That's when the light bulb in her head went off.

She decided to create a campaign aimed at encouraging people to remove the ear loops on masks, especially outside hospitals. Scientists have raised alarms early in the COVID-19 pandemic about risks to animals from disposable masks and other single-use items.

"It was just heartbreaking because I realized that animals can get tangled in these loops and get hurt by them," Somers said Sunday.

An environmental steward since she was a small child, according to her mother Belinda Mayer, Somerssimply wants to make people aware of the problem they are directly contributing to.

The family has a couple of dogs, and Somersis making an effort to protect them, as well as other animals in the city and across the world.

"We only have one Earth. It's not like there is a plan B cause there isn't," she said."It's only this one place that we have, and with all these fossil fuels that we are using we only have one option and we have to take care of our Earth, and we have to take care of the life inside of it."

So Somers created posters and has them up at one Winnipeg hospital. She recently watchedsome people tear off the ear loops of their mask after looking at her poster, and it brought her great joys.

She plans to contact the other hospitals in the city, in an effort to create more awareness through her campaign.

"I hope that this will help animals by making people know what the problem we have at hand is, and for them to realize that they can also take steps one mask at a time to help animals," Somers said.

Mayer, who works in health care in addition to being a full-time student at the University of Manitoba, is impressed byher daughter's big idea.

The campaign is pushing small steps, with the hopes of making a big difference.

"The effects of disposable ear loops from these masks is really quite significant when you see footage and learn about how animals are suffering," Mayer said.

"I think it's an important cause that we do whatever we can."