Column: Be a real good friend to wild animals. Don’t feed them, and right here’s why

Final week, I learn a wild article a couple of girl in Washington state who known as 911 after roughly 100 aggressive raccoons confirmed up in her yard.

Because it seems, this girl had been feeding a small group of docile raccoons for over 35 years. However not too long ago, she began noticing extra raccoons on her property. The variety of raccoons rapidly multiplied, and the brand new ones weren’t very pleasant.

Anticipating meals, they started swarming the lady each time she stepped foot outdoors her home. She started to really feel so unsafe that she known as 911 for assist.

With the Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife on the case, the raccoon matter was rapidly resolved. The answer turned out to be fairly easy. The lady stopped leaving meals for the raccoons, they usually left.

Many well-meaning of us assume they’re serving to wildlife by feeding them. However the fact is, leaving meals for wildlife is dangerous and may negatively affect your entire ecosystem.

Wild animals have developed specialised diets based mostly on their surroundings. However many are scavengers and can reap the benefits of simply accessible meals sources. With a gradual provide of human-provided meals, wildlife could cease looking, foraging, or scavenging as they’d naturally.

Human meals is usually not nutritionally enough for wildlife and may make them critically in poor health. It could possibly additionally trigger the unfold of illness and fights the place wildlife congregate round these human-provided assets.

Feeding wild animals can even lead to injury to your property. Within the Washington state incident, the newly arrived “gaze” — which I not too long ago found is the identify for a bunch of raccoons — scratched the surface of the lady’s home all night time seeking meals.

Wild animals which are fed by people be taught to hang around in areas frequented by people, together with roadsides and parking heaps. These areas expose them to many risks, akin to being hit by a automobile, having an altercation with somebody’s pet, or assembly an unfriendlyperson who needs them hurt.

One other draw back of feeding wild animals is that they begin to lose their pure worry of people and will strategy people extra readily. This may be simply misunderstood because the animals being “pleasant.” Nevertheless, these animals proceed to be wild, and manybites and accidents to people happen due to habituation from feeding.

The stakes are greater for bigger predatory species, like bears and coyotes. Those that develop into too snug close to people could also be declared a public well being danger, probably resulting in their elimination or euthanasia by wildlife officers.

Sadly, a 500-pound black bear at Mammoth Lakes, who was so acquainted to locals that he was named “Victor,” was euthanized in August after he helped himself to a meal left on a picnic desk in a campground and swiped one of many campers on the leg when shestayed too shut for consolation.

Being a real good friend to wildlife means displaying them respect by permitting them to keep up their pure behaviors. As a primary step, it’s best to by no means deliberately feed them, however there’s extra you are able to do to assist maintain wildlife wild.

• Securely retailer all meals and trash
• Hold your pet meals and water indoors
• And, keep in mind to all the time “Go away No Hint” out on the paths
• Hold a secure distance when observing wildlife, use binoculars to get a better look
• If a wild animal will get too shut, haze them by making loud noises and scaring them away

Lastly, when you see an orphaned, injured or sick animal, textual content our Wildlife Helpline with a photograph and brief description to 626-344-1129.

For extra details about our wildlife rehabilitation program, humane exclusion program, and academic assets relating to wildlife, go to pasadenahumane.org/wildlife

Dia DuVernet is president and CEO of Pasadena Humane. 

This weblog put up initially appeared as a column within the Pasadena Star-Information on October 18, 2024.