'CALL people out and change the norm', this is the plea of a business owner in Pembrokeshire who wants to see littering in the countryside stopped after she almost lost everything due to the recent fires in the county.
Dr Sarah Beynon, who owns popular attraction Dr Beynon's Bug Farm outside of St Davids, described how she was told she might lose her house as uncontrollable grassland fires approached her property last weekend.
Dr Beynon says she wants to see littering stopped in the countryside as conditions become like a tinderbox. Particulalry she wants to see people dispose of cigerette butts responsiblly.
During the clean up from the devasting fires that effected the town last weekend Dr Beynon said she found hundreds of butts in burnt hedgerows all of which could be a fire hazard in these current conditions.
"The sheer number of debris now visible in the burnt hedgerows shows that littering the countryside is becoming all too common," said Dr Beynon.
"On the day after the fire, I picked up five cigarette butts from The Bug Farm car park that had been thrown into the dry hedge.
"We see people every day having a cigarette in the car park before coming in and flicking their used butt into a hedge.
"I find this behaviour completely shocking.
"When I asked a lady to collect her butt from the car park hedge on Tuesday, she came back in saying: 'I shouldn't have done that, should I?' so some people are aware, but we all need to help by calling people out on this behaviour so it isn't seen as the norm.
"Throwing a cigarette butt on the ground is littering. Every person doing it could, and should, be fined £150 each and every time.
"Even if you think you have extinguished your butt, you never know 100 per cent that you have, so you are risking starting up a fire.
"Please take your butts home with you and dispose of them responsibly and make this your new normal habit."
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Dr Beynon described how it was ‘rather sobering’ to be told they may lose their home and nature reserve after a grassland fire spiralled out of control in St Davids last weekend.
She said she would never forget seeing animals running for their lives, in particular a rabbit with charred fur that stopped in the middle of the road before carrying on
The fire came on August 13, the day that there was another grassland fire in Newgale and a fire at an industrial estate in Waterston that required up to 100 firefighters to tackle the blaze.
The Bug Farm and Eco Dewi are looking to run litter-picks and will create a Facebook page for anyone who wants to get involved.
Go to the Bug Farm Facebook page for more details.
Follow the Western Telegraph’s Instagram page here and see some of the best images of Pembrokeshire.
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