Drop the squirrel

[tolkienfan]

One of my friends who is a Naturalist shared this article via social media yesterday. After reading it, I thought that many of the people here would find it interesting

http://suziegilbert.wordpress.com/20...and-back-away/

The basic premise is that no one is capable of helping a wild creature besides that creature's mother or your official local wildlife rehabilitator.

Beyond being an informative read, I think it raises an issue within our culture.

- I feel that people are culturally encouraged (at least in the U.S.) to do all of the things the article says NOT to do. If you walk by a injured/starving/abandoned critter and do nothing, you are a heartless jerk.

- This is especially true if you are a child. HOW many children's books have I read where the main character finds an injured baby bird, takes it home, against the odds convinces their (heartless) parents to let them keep it, nurses it back to health, and painfully but heroically releases it back into the wild?

- How many people loudly and often take pride in the fact that they were "that kid" that was always bringing home critters to care for? In fact, if you weren't "that kid", how dare you even consider becoming a nurse/naturalist/veterinarian/animal-lover/doctor/etc.?
Note that the article does point out that even a few decades ago there weren't many local wildlife rehabilitators and sometimes taking the animal home may have been your best option.

Does anyone else feel like there's a cultural barrier to following the recommendations of the article? Does anyone have further insights? Can anyone comment on similarities/differences in other parts of the world?

[Alcuin]

- blanked -

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by tolkienfan

The basic premise is that no one is capable of helping a wild creature besides that creature's mother or your official local wildlife rehabilitator.

I wouldn't go that far. I would rather say very few people beside the creature's mother and wildlife recovery centres have the knowledge to help a wild animal. Mind you, mortality among baby creatures is high, even in centres. Not all of the birds we took there survived.

But it was an informative read. I agree the law is not beneficial to wildlife. Ninety days is a long time to potentially mess up or habituate a young creature to humans, wrecking any chance of a possible release.

A better way yet would be to promote the local wildlife centres.

My parents used to support a bird care and release centre. Sometimes, when we found a hatchling out of its nest and couldn't put it back, we took it there. We as kids loved that, so bringing animals to professionals might be just as much a worthwhile experience for children instead of letting them raise and tame a wild animal with all possible the consequences themselves. (We got a tour of the facility once, we got to name two swans ready for release and a baby heron nearly took out my eye. Good times.)

I agree wholeheartedly that volunteering at one's local center if wildlife interests you is more worthwhile than taking chances with animals' lives to learn how to care for them. They can always use more hands. I always wanted to do so but our local centre shut down before I was old enough.

[Insidious Rex]

Yes, taking care of a wild animal is not at all like they show in the cartoons or we imagine in our mind. Had a friend who's 7 year old daughter found a baby chipmunk and insisted on keeping it and of course once it grew it escaped and destroyed a $2000 television by chewing through the back and electrocuting istelf among the wires... When I was a child I once found a robins egg in my yard with no sign of a nest anywhere in sight so I took it in knowing getting it warm was critical. I jury rigged a lamp sideways near the egg so that the warmth from the light would radiate on the egg. Went downstairs to watch tv and when I came upstairs a few hours later I found the lamp had fallen on a nearby mattress and had burned a hole through the mattress and set the mattress guts into a smoldering fire. Tried to put it out with water but that sucker just kept smoking so I called the fire department and told them look I was trying to warm up this egg and I managed to set my mattress on fire now its only smoldering and giving off smoke. Theres no flames but I cant put it out so maybe can you send a guy over to help me. Next thing I knew 2 or 3 screaming fire trucks come pulling up and 5 or 6 fireman in full gear jumping out, run upstairs, drag the mattress ALL the way downstairs and into the front yard and proceed to pick it apart with axes and then spray foam all over the guts... All this in front of neighbors in broad day light. Talk about embarrassing... And all this for an egg!

[tolkienfan]

What happened to Alcuin's post? I thought it was an excellent counter-argument and had some great anecdotes. It definitely made me think deeper about the topic and I was considering a reply.

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by tolkienfan

What happened to Alcuin's post? I thought it was an excellent counter-argument and had some great anecdotes. It definitely made me think deeper about the topic and I was considering a reply.

Well, thank you, tolkienfan! I removed it because I really do not have time for a good argument, and because there are so few participants these days at the ’Moot, I did not want to (deeply) offend anyone and drive someone away. But since you have asked, here is what I posted, less any edits I made along the way. (Admins are welcome to change or correct what I posted compared to what is here – please strikethrough any of this and post the corrections.)

Originally Posted by Alcuin

My mother grew up on a farm. She and her siblings had many animals as pets, including a lamb of which mother became endeared as a child: when her father slaughtered it, she refused to eat any of the meat, and wept while the rest of the family did.

Her family had often orphaned raccoons and squirrels as pets, and now elderly, they recall them fondly. (Both are mischievous, but raccoons particularly so.) As an elderly lady, my grandmother still lived on the farm, and once kept a squirrel that she sometimes allowed into her kitchen, to the horror of my mother and her sister.

I think this notion that people should not have or commune with “wild� animals is a purely turn-of-the-century pretension. There is no antecedent for it in human history: we have domesticated many animals, and continue to do so. My daughter told me this weekend of a woman who owned a domesticated fox that someone, apparently falsely and maliciously and certainly anonymously, accused of biting a person: the police in that town entered the woman’s house without a warrant, seized the animal, which was legal and licensed, and killed it without giving her any say or recourse. She’s suing them: I hope she refuses to settle, and wins a large judgment.

This strikes me as akin to the nineteenth-century utopian notion of the “Noble Savage�.

This idea that man should be divorced from the world in which he lives is dangerous because it is false – we cannot be divorced or removed from the world in which we live – but it also shuns one of our duties as human beings: to care for the world in which we live. Would you also abandon an endangered creature to die because it is “the natural� thing to do?

Finally, the claim that we should “leave it to the professionals� appears to be nothing other than a naked appeal to state-sponsored rent-seeking. No amateurs, we get paid for this! In plain English, This is our turf, we get paid to do it, and everyone keep off: this our meal ticket! I think it transparently self-serving As for that last comment, “I know nothing about kids. If I found a child wandering around the mall and tried to take him home and care for him, I’d release him in much worse shape than I found him,� what kind of person says such things? If she cannot or will not help a fellow human being, why would I trust her with an animal?

I grew up in a very different world from “city-dwellers,� though I am and have been all my life a “city-dweller� myself. There were in my youth around (and akin to!) me many farmers and hunters who know animals well. I cannot conceive nor can I countenance any bar toward an Alaskan wilderness family adopting and rearing a lost bear cub, or a Nebraska farming family succoring a lost eaglet. These bans are anathema to human reason and responsibility! To argue otherwise is a [strikes me as] selfish, mean-minded, narrow religiosity driven by the greed and avarice of those who stake the claims! [I consider it] It is utterly wicked and inexcusable!

That being said, I live in a long-urbanized community and have no expertise in raising animals (other than dogs and cats), and if I found a baby (or wounded) raccoon, hawk, or deer fawn, I would call the state authorities, or better yet my friend and neighbor and fellow parishioner the biologist (whose wife is our veterinarian) and tell him (and especially his wife!!) what I’d found.

Because without professionals, I would be sure to foul it up. Besides, they get paid for that.

REASON, not legalism, must prevail. If you cannot exercise reason, forget the animals ― your HUMANITY is lost.

[Earniel]

I see no problems with your post, Alcuin. You raise good points. I agree with several.

I daresay I made my argument largely from the view of a city dweller, since that is what I know. City children do not have the same opportunities to interact with -let alone care for- wild animals in the way children in rural areas would. We laugh at it, but often the only time city children have seen cows is in commercials of Milka and yes, some do think therefor that cows are naturally purple.

I wholeheartedly agree that the last thing we should do is cut ourselves off from nature! People should celebrate, revel in the few wild places we have left and hold them dear and preserve them. But sadly sometimes preserving also mean staying away. Many animals need quiet to raise their young, some forests are better closed off for the human population when the animals have young. Petting cute baby animals is a powerful impulse, but if it leads to the mother not recognising her offspring's scent and abandoning it, then you really messed up. Baby deer of the local variety for example are notoriously difficult to raise by humans, the stress more often than not kills them. In or out of wildlife rehabiliation centres. People should know not to pick up hidden deer-calves when they find it hidden in shrubs, thinking it hurt, and don't see mom right away. One needs to know nature to know the right time when to engage, when to back off and when to let the professionals handle it. We can't do that if we cut ourselves off from nature.

Having wild animals as pets, is a far more conflicted issue for me and one I won't enter here. But there are many more, better perhaps, ways to interact with nature than taking it out of the wild and into your home.

My parents always made great efforts to let us connect with nature. Teaching us about animals, taking us to forests, letting us plant our own plants in the garden, etc... I think that is necessary and I had a good time growing up. But... I think letting kids care for wild animals with no prior knowledge or help is not a good way to start.

Because without professionals, I would be sure to foul it up. Besides, they get paid for that.

There are some that are paid, or supported, there are an equal if not greater number of volunteers who do it simply out of love.

[tolkienfan]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

Well, thank you, tolkienfan! I removed it because I really do not have time for a good argument, and because there are so few participants these days at the ’Moot, I did not want to (deeply) offend anyone and drive someone away. But since you have asked, here is what I posted, less any edits I made along the way. (Admins are welcome to change or correct what I posted compared to what is here – please strikethrough any of this and post the corrections.)

No problem! I too was worried that my original post might offend someone. But I think the lack of activity around here is more likely to drive people away than anything well-meaning mooters say, so post away!

Originally Posted by Alcuin

I grew up in a very different world from “city-dwellers,� though I am and have been all my life a “city-dweller� myself. There were in my youth around (and akin to!) me many farmers and hunters who know animals well. I cannot conceive nor can I countenance any bar toward an Alaskan wilderness family adopting and rearing a lost bear cub, or a Nebraska farming family succoring a lost eaglet. These bans are anathema to human reason and responsibility! To argue otherwise is a [strikes me as] selfish, mean-minded, narrow religiosity driven by the greed and avarice of those who stake the claims! [I consider it] It is utterly wicked and inexcusable!

That being said, I live in a long-urbanized community and have no expertise in raising animals (other than dogs and cats), and if I found a baby (or wounded) raccoon, hawk, or deer fawn, I would call the state authorities, or better yet my friend and neighbor and fellow parishioner the biologist (whose wife is our veterinarian) and tell him (and especially his wife!!) what I’d found.

Because without professionals, I would be sure to foul it up. Besides, they get paid for that.

REASON, not legalism, must prevail. If you cannot exercise reason, forget the animals ― your HUMANITY is lost.

I definitely agree with this post 100%.

My only difficulty with your initial post gets back to how I started the thread. Crying and going to bed hungry while your family eats a lamb or having a pet squirrel is exactly the kind of story I was talking about. When 100s of city kids hear this story, they want to become the hero. The problem is, they DON'T live on a farm and neither they nor their parents have the resources or the knowledge to raise a sheep. This is where we run into the issues that the professionals face where they are given the animal only when it is too late to save them. Let's face it, the majority of people are not farmers/Alaskans and are incapable of helping a wild animal, however much they would like to. I believe that the article is/should be directed towards the people who do not realize this.

I think you have definitely raised several good points though about how the legal side of things can sadly end up directed at the few who actually do know what they are doing, even if they don't have a degree/training.

[Alec]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

When I was a child I once found a robins egg in my yard with no sign of a nest anywhere in sight so I took it in knowing getting it warm was critical. I jury rigged a lamp sideways near the egg so that the warmth from the light would radiate on the egg. Went downstairs to watch tv and when I came upstairs a few hours later I found the lamp had fallen on a nearby mattress and had burned a hole through the mattress and set the mattress guts into a smoldering fire. Tried to put it out with water but that sucker just kept smoking so I called the fire department and told them look I was trying to warm up this egg and I managed to set my mattress on fire now its only smoldering and giving off smoke. Theres no flames but I cant put it out so maybe can you send a guy over to help me. Next thing I knew 2 or 3 screaming fire trucks come pulling up and 5 or 6 fireman in full gear jumping out, run upstairs, drag the mattress ALL the way downstairs and into the front yard and proceed to pick it apart with axes and then spray foam all over the guts... All this in front of neighbors in broad day light. Talk about embarrassing... And all this for an egg!

Scary, but how old were you then?

[Insidious Rex]

Originally Posted by Myself

Scary, but how old were you then?

Probably 9 or 10.

[Alec]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

Probably 9 or 10.

[Rían]

Hilarious, IRex!

What happened to the egg, btw?

[Insidious Rex]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

Hilarious, IRex!

What happened to the egg, btw?

I think we (my sister, my mom and myself) ended up putting it in a box with some cotton and other insulation after all the hubub. But I dont remember anything coming of it so it was probably dead all along...