On another forum a few years ago there was a discussion about bears getting in people's trash cans. One guy in particular had an interesting post. He worked in Alaska laying underground cable. Said they would just bury it straight in the ground with junction boxes every so often. The issue was that no sooner than they would finish a section, animals like bears and foxes would tear up the junctions and dig up the cable. Turns out that the insulation for the wires emits a compound similar to what rotting food emits... so the smell was the same to the animals. I don't know if synthetic fabrics have the same compound/smell, but it's something to wonder about.

Oh, his solution for the cable and trash eating critters was Pine-Sol. Apparently they would douse the cable then bury it... no more trouble. Others tried it with their trash cans with many positive reports. I know it works to keep dogs out of my trash.