Many people enjoy feeding wildlife because it allows them to have closer contact with these animals. Often, they think they are helping the animals to survive, especially in an urban environment. They could not be more incorrect. Wild animals that are in your neighborhood have survived because there is available food, water, and shelter. Most urban wildlife eat a variety of vegetation and small vertebrates (such as mice) which are plentiful even in the most settled residential neighborhoods. If an animal is in your neighborhood, you can rest assured that there is plenty of food available, or the animal would simply not be living there. For centuries, these animals have existed without our need to feed them. This is still the case. While feeding the animals can be fun for humans, it is usually detrimental for the animals, and will harm them more than it helps them. The following information will explain this more thoroughly:

1. When wild animals begin to depend on humans for food, their foraging skills may be diminished. When young wild animals are taught to depend on humans for food, they may become less experienced at foraging and consequently less likely to survive.

2. Wild animals that are used to being fed by humans commonly lose their fear of people. Animals that are unafraid of people will approach them for food, and are sometimes mistaken as rabid and killed. They also become easy targets for kids with BB guns and others who mean them harm. An instinctive wariness of people is important to a wild animal's survival.

3. The food fed to animals by humans is inadequate nutritionally and can cause serious health problems for the animals, especially when they are young and still developing. Just like humans, most urban animals need a variety of foods in their diet, and if they fill up on "junk" food, they will not get the nutrients they need to stay healthy. Most humans will feed animals food that they have in their house - people food - which bears no resemblance to what the animals eat in the wild.

4. Animals (like humans!) are opportunistic and will go for the most convenient food source available. Who doesn't like a free meal? When food is readily available, animals will gather in abnormally large numbers. This means that if one animal in the group has an illness or disease, it can spread throughout the group. Many wild animals do not interact with others of their own species except during mating season and when raising their young. This is one way to limit diseases among a wild population. By gathering these animals together in unnatural groups, these diseases can spread much more quickly and can destroy a large number of animals.

5. Reproduction rates may also be affected when an artificial food source is readily available. In the wild, the number of animals being born is often directly related to the amount of natural food available. The number of animals surviving will also depend on how much food is available. This is nature's way of keeping a balance and making sure there are not too many animals in one area. When an unnatural food supply becomes available, animals may produce more young and soon there may be more animals living in the area than what the natural food sources can support. If that food source is no longer available, animals may starve to death.

6. Feeding migratory animals such as ducks, geese, and some passerines such as hummingbirds can interfere with the animal's awareness of seasonal changes in natural food supplies which tell the animal that it is time to migrate. This has been a large problem with Canada geese in some parts of the country, including Washington. Human food sources are so plentiful that some Canada geese no longer migrate but continue to reproduce to the point where they have been removed or killed because they have become such a nuisance.

7. A common phone call that we receive at the PAWS Wildlife Center is from people whose neighbors have been feeding wild animals. Often, they have become an incredible nuisance and the caller wants to kill or remove them. Many people do not think about the neighborhood impact when they start feeding wildlife. Wild animals do not usually discriminate between one human and another and will often start pestering other neighbors. They may also cause damage to homes and property because they expect to be fed and have lost their fear of people.

So, if we really care about wildlife and want them to survive, we should encourage persons not to feed them. There are other ways to enjoy wildlife without harming them. Visits to local parks, camping trips, or even planting native plants which are a natural food source will provide this opportunity. Another positive way to feed and have close contact with wild animals is to volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center, such as PAWS, where hundreds of orphaned baby animals are in need of a little human help. So please, help wildlife by enjoying them from a distance - their lives depend on it.

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