Don't feed the wildlife

When we were kids, while my mother was at Sunday Mass - her one respite of a week - my father would sometimes take us to feed the deer at Green Hill Park, or the ducks at Elm Park. At Green Hill Park, we'd take our large brown paper bag full of stale bread and head over to the cylcone fence the deer were behind Those critters would lope over and press their muzzles up against the chain links and we'd shove pieces of bread into their mouths, careful not to graze their big old teeth with our little young fingers. 

At Elm Park, there was no separation between kids and wildlife, but I don't remember ever feeding the ducks by hand. I think we just scattered stale bread around.

There were no signs warning us off feeding the animals. I'm sure at Green Hill Park, families feeding the deer was factored into their diet. Sure, they were wild animals, but they were in captivity, in a sort of pastoral mini-zoo (now replaced by a petting zoo) that also featured bison. The ducks at Elm Park weren't captive, but were left to their own devices, one of which was letting families toss bread at them.

In general, it's not a good idea to feed wild animals, as they grow accustomed to humans and human food when they should be consorting with each other and with their animal kingdom enemies, and eating whatever comes naturally: acorns, weeds, bugs, mice. The other day, someone posted a picture taken at the Boston Public Garden of a giant hawk, perched in a tree, with a giant rat in its talons. (Go, hawks!)

But despite the many signs telling folks not to feed the animals, I always see people (mostly tourists) feeding the geese, the ducks, and the squirrels. 

My favorite feeders were a pair of middle-aged women - locals, not tourists - who'd I see roaming around the Garden pulling a luggage carrier with a giant carton full of peanuts strapped to it. 

To me, all squirrels look alike, but these two clearly recognized the differences. "Mr. Bun-Bun!" they would call. "Benicio! Alice!" And any squirrel within earshot would beeline over to them for some peanuts. 

The downside of all this was that the squirrels became pretty darned agressive, and began coming right up to people expecting - nay, demanding - a handout. A friend of mine had a squirrel run up her leg. And the little bastards got big - some seemed to me the near-size of racoons. 

And, yes, there are racoons around here, but they mostly come out at night or in the early morning hours to maraud through garbage cans. (Let me tell you, those suckers can lick an avocado pit clean.) But nobody sets out to feed racoons. 

But way across the country, someone did. 

For more than 35 years, a woman in Washington State would leave some food in her yard for about a dozen resident raccoons. (Source: NY Times)

Then, all of the sudden, the news went viral in racoon-ville that there was chow to be had, and all of a sudden there was a horde of around 100 racoons nosing around the woman's house. 

All night, she had racooons scratching around while she sheltered in place. When she tried venturing out during the day, she was swarmed by racoons, and they'd back off only when she starting throwing them food. Unlike her regular racoons, which were nice, the new guys were aggressive, nasty, demanding, scary. And it kept getting worse. 

So she did what anyone would do, which was dial 911. With the sheriffs watching over her, she hopped in her car and fled the scene. 

The sheriff’s department said trappers had been asking a prohibitive $500 per raccoon to cart them away. So the woman was referred to the state’s department of fish and wildlife. Their expert advice was, well, to stop feeding the raccoons.

“The raccoons appear to have started dispersing now that they are no longer being fed, and we are glad for a positive outcome to this case,” Bridget Mire of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife wrote in an email on Thursday.

...“We discourage people from feeding wildlife, as this causes them to lose their natural fear of people, which can lead to aggression,” Ms. Mire said. “It also draws animals together, possibly mixing healthy and sick animals and spreading diseases among them. Some wildlife, like raccoons, can carry diseases that may be transmissible to people and pets. Feeding wildlife also may attract predators, such as coyotes and bears.”

I haven't seen the Public Garden squirrel feeders in a few years.  Maybe they got the message that you're not supposed to feed the wildlife, even if they are "just" cute little squirrels like Mr. Bun-Bun and Benicio.