OT: Wild Animals

[Grace~~~]

If anyone has a comment or opinion, I know there are a handful of really smart people here who no doubt have wisdom beyond CPAP.

~~~and I really am on the fence. I used to be sure, but now I do not know.

I've begun feeding wild animals. Their habitat has been destroyed and they showed up, and I fed them and they are hungry.
VERY HUNGRY.

I should stop, right?
...and hope they move along?

I have only 2 acres and most of the properties around are much smaller and in homeowners associations. (mine was built 80 years before HOA's came to Florida. I am on a lake. There is about 2 acres of government owned wetlands adjoining my lake frontage to one side and a comparable (though *just* less than an acre property so in a different zoning category) to the other.

If anyone has ever accidentally begun caring for something or putting food out for something hungry please let me know how this ends ~~~

Thanks,
~~~grace

[Grace~~~]

Oh ... all except one new very brash cat and the large birds ...ONLY come out at night.

They are in an alarming rotation out there right now.

[chunkyfrog]

You are probably doing the right thing unless you are feeding bears or raccoons.

[Jas_williams]

The more you feed the more will come, wild animals are opportunists if there is easy food they will take it, rather than hunt for it themselves, the biggest issue I see is you may end up attracting animals into public areas where they become a problem.

[palerider]

Don't pet the alligators.

[CPAPSteve]

Do not feed the animals! Here up north it is a federal offense to feed wildlife and you actually are making them dependent on humans and animals lose their fear of humans and will take every opportunity to get easy food. Using an extreme example - feed a bear and it will realize they no longer need to forage for food. They become a risk to society - they will approach and likely attack humans. Most animals that have been spoiled here are usually destroyed because of good intentions of humans.

Do not feed them and let the animals figure it out on their own on their own turf.

[palerider]

feral offense

Freudian slip?

[kaiasgram]

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/08 ... d-turkeys/

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9eFO04HXRQ

They really can be creepy -- here they are on our rooftop last year:

[old dude]

How does one "accidentally" begin feeding wild animals? Come on, you're not being honest with yourself.

It's not too hard to see from your post that you know exactly how this will turn out and you know you're doing the wrong thing.

In my area when people feed the bears because they're cute and these people want photo opps, it always leads to eventual destruction of the bears when they become habituated to humans and often dangerous.

[ChicagoGranny]

I should stop, right?

You know what to do, now do it. Now, not when your feed runs out.

one new very brash cat

Feral cats kill more than one billion of our beautiful songbirds each year. ( https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cat ... -each-year ) Call animal control. They will trap the cat. Irresponsible cat owners!

[Julie]

You are doing it to make yourself feel better (tho' I acknowledge that they might need help) but will eventually come to resent them as they depend on you. Consider what you're doing very, very carefully.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Sorry, Grace, I have to side with the others. Don't feed them. You might rue the day you started.
Anecdote:
I put out a bird feeder. The spilled seeds attracted rats. The rats chewed through some wires of my truck engine. I put out poison to kill the rats. The racoons stole the poison bait stations. I quit feeding the birds.

[prodigyplace]

We intentionally feed wild animals (squirrels) to trap and re-home where they will be less of a pest.

We try not to feed wild animals from our garden, but we end up unintentionally feeding some anyway. The birds devastated our corn crop this year.
So, it is possible to unintentionally feed wild animals.

[ChicagoGranny]

So, it is possible to unintentionally feed wild animals.

Your road kill feeds buzzards, crows, coyotes and more. Unintentional feeding?

[MrsRinPDX]

I have to side with the others here: Don't feed them. We had a neighbor who used to feed "cute" raccoons. Then the neighbor moved away. Now I have raccoons searching for food in our backyard in the middle of the day. We have a 6 foot fence which they easily scale.

Raccoons can carry rabies and can easily eviscerate a dog. What do I do when one of them comes after my kid?