02-24-2014, 03:41 PM | #1 |
Elf Lord
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Drop the squirrel
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?
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02-24-2014, 07:48 PM | #2 |
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- blanked -
Last edited by Alcuin : 02-24-2014 at 07:52 PM. |
02-25-2014, 06:54 AM | #3 | |
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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. |
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02-25-2014, 02:23 PM | #4 |
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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!
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02-26-2014, 08:10 PM | #5 |
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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.
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02-26-2014, 08:41 PM | #6 | |
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02-27-2014, 02:21 PM | #7 |
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03-01-2014, 12:58 AM | #8 |
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Hilarious, IRex!
What happened to the egg, btw?
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03-01-2014, 01:28 AM | #9 |
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03-02-2014, 01:27 AM | #10 | ||
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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. Last edited by Alcuin : 03-02-2014 at 03:38 AM. |
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03-02-2014, 07:03 AM | #11 | |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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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. Quote:
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03-02-2014, 12:43 PM | #12 |
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Thank you, Eärniel. I am not one to conceal my disagreements with the prevailing social current, and was concerned that they would cause inappropriate dismay.
I was taught as a child to leave young animals alone precisely because the mother might identify human scent and abandon her young. Since this lesson was conveyed in the 1960s, and my parents had learned it as children as well, and their parents and their parents’ siblings knew it as well, it must be old knowledge, not some new-fangled discovery. My friends knew it, too, so I always considered it widely-held. Farming families, however, had no compunction about adopting an abandoned wild animal and often did, even when I was growing up: deer, raccoons, and squirrels were typical examples. In more northern climes, people have adopted moose, which is quite the chore, particularly if an adult moose wants to re-enter “its” house; and I am aware of one plains family that adopted an American buffalo (bison), which still enters their house. The impetus in the United States today, however, is to outlaw the adoption of wild animals, even if it means that they die. Alaska has been arresting people for adopting wild animals, especially bear cubs. It is this flat prohibition, particularly the (un)reasoning behind it, that seems to me so odious, and to which I stringently object. |
03-03-2014, 06:39 PM | #13 | |||
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On the other hand, I remember a heart-breaking documentary 'A killer whale called Luna' in which a young solitary orca tries to make friends with local people. By laws that are meant to have the animals' best interest at heart, environmental agencies tried hard to limit contact between people and Luna. Warnings, fines, etc. It was hard for the people who genuinely cared for the animal. And for a social animal like an orca I think that too was hard on Luna. But his wish for contact did get him killed eventually, which might have as easily happened if contact hadn't been prohibited. I think that for cases like poor and lonely Luna there is no good decision to make. It brings a difficult discussion to the foreground: what is best for the animals? Life in the wild that may be short and painful? Or life in a human environment where they might not belong or fit, but at least they will be alive and often even happy? Personally I cannot decide. Both ways will lead to tragedy anyhow. |
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03-04-2014, 02:52 PM | #14 |
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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...
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03-04-2014, 03:59 PM | #15 | ||
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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.
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03-04-2014, 05:46 PM | #16 | |
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What delight, tolkienfan! You and I find ourselves on the same side of the argument, and to our mutual surprise.
Now, to the matter of statute and regulation. No one can outlaw stupidity, ignorance, foolishness, or honest mistake. It is enough, I believe, to tell schoolchildren in urbanized areas, “Don’t bother the baby animals! Stay away from them so that their mothers will not be frightened to come for them; but if their mother doesn’t come for them, call” whomever. Most animal rescue leagues here in New England are staffed and run by “trained amateurs” anyway, which means they’re not really “amateurs,” but professionals or semi-professionals without degrees. After all, if there are any professional linguists, philologists, and university-level English professors posting here at Entmoot, I am unaware of it; but I come here when I can for good company and good discussion, particularly on JRR Tolkien’s body of work, and for good threads such as this. “Amateurs” should never be underestimated or denigrated, and we all have to learn somehow. But back to the topic. Since we can not, or should not try to, outlaw stupidity, ignorance, foolishness, or honest error, how do we deal with people who do things stupidly, out of ignorance, foolishly, or make an honest mistake? I would argue that, if no people are injured, we should probably just discuss the matter in public – in the news media, so that everyone will be aware of it – and make a point to be sure that anyone paying attention will know what to do next time. That is one of the primary purposes of journalism (though that noble profession seems to have fallen into the clutches of avarice and fear of the powerful, and so become a mere conveyor of propaganda). It’s the modern equivalent of a village or parish meeting in which the elders bring out the offender, ask him uncomfortable questions about what he did, point out why that was a bad idea, correct him publicly – so that everyone else in the village or parish knows why it was a bad idea and what to do next time (because there’s always a next time) – and let him go. The wrong response, I think, is for some legislator or regulator who is often highly formally educated, but completely ignorant of how other people live and what they know, and therefore foolish enough to be sufficiently arrogant to pass a law or make a regulation outlawing what they do not understand for those who do. That might be an honest mistake on the part of the official, but it’s still a mistake. While you cannot outlaw stupidity, ignorance, or foolishness, that doesn’t mean stupid, ignorant, foolish people don’t make rules. They do. If allowed to run unchecked, they will make most of them. Quote:
Last edited by Alcuin : 03-04-2014 at 05:57 PM. |
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03-04-2014, 06:15 PM | #17 | |||||
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03-04-2014, 07:07 PM | #18 | |||
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In the Ephel Dúath, when he and Sam sat down to rest in the cleft before they entered Shelob’s Lair, Frodo told Sam, “Earth, air and water all seem accursed.” Sam replied, Quote:
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