I Know We Look So Cute-But Please Don't Feed Us!

Once upon a time, long before I was born, my parents had kids and they use to always go camping. They would sit around the campfire at night and listen to the night sounds. Occasionally a raccoon would come out of the woods, in hopes of getting some kind of scraps to eat. But mom and dad would not feed them, which would upset their daughters greatly.

Even to this day, I see all sorts of critters, and they sure look hungry, but again mom and dad won't feed them. Okay, they do put out a mineral block for the deer to lick on. But I guess the mineral/salt block is to help the deer with ticks and help prevent other diseases.

I'm going to tell you a few stories (yes, they are true) about some critters they have met along the way.

Once when mom & dad were camping with their daughters, they had just gone to bed when a shadow cross by their tent door. Upon investigating, it was discovered to be a momma raccoon with her babies. They were looking for a handout. When they couldn't find anything, they started to tear into the bins which had all of the food; which was by the way on a trailer covered under a tarp! Then dad was caught in his underwear-trying to chase to family of coons away. one of the babies ran up a tree and was barely hanging on for deer life-right above dad's head! No one got hurt, but they sure became a pest, so mom & dad had to put all the bins of food in the car and lock it up.

On another camping trip, they just ate supper and had cleaned up. They were taking a short walk and left the trash back at camp. When returning, they found their trash scattered all over their site and down the ravine. They picked up what they could, but the coon sure had it's fun making that mess!

Right after hitting the road and becoming full timer rv'ers. They stopped their first night at a campground in AR. While sitting inside reading, they could here this chatter noise (and their other little dog, Coco started to growl). Dad opened the door and what faced him was a masked bandit-begging for food! He shooed it away. About five minutes later is was on the axle of the rig-making all sorts of ruckus! The next morning upon opening their door, here now comes a mallard duck, begging for his share of food!

Working one summer at a private park in MN, they were told that giving the mallard ducks field corn was okay and wouldn't hurt their diet. The owners have been feeding the ducks for a very long time. So mom started to feed them the corn and she kept a coffee can by the rig so that when they came around, she would have feed for them. Well now the ducks thought that 5:00am was a good time to get up and eat. So they would land on the roof of their rig. Have you ever heard a duck on a rubber roof? me neither, but I guess it sure woke up my parents!!

While working at another campground in Iowa, one of their co-workers at another campground was bragging about how she hands feed a raccoon and has been doing it for years. She even can get the raccoon to take food out of her own mouth! Well, believing it, is seeing it for yourself. So one night they went over to their place and sure enough, she was feeding the little bandit chicken, biscuits potatoes & gravy! Then she went and got some marshmallows, stuck one half way out of her mouth, and here comes the little critter, taking the food right out of her mouth!

We hear stories about how so-and-so fed some kind of wild animal or how they nurtured that wild animal back to health. A wild animal is just that-Wild. So okay here comes the million dollar question. What happens to those wonderful little critters that you so kindly hand fed once you are not around? Do they go looking for handouts somewhere else? Or maybe because you are not there to feed them, they have forgotten their natural instinct to go look for food and so now they are literally starving to death. A sick animal is a Mean(er) animal.

Okay so now my parents have me hanging around. So do I really want another critter around scavenging for food? Heck no! That's my territory and I will naturally fight for it, and they too will naturally fight for their rights. In some cases as small as I am, I'm sure I might loose, but I would fight for life and food....

In the instance of the story where the raccoons try to steal mom & dad's food out of a bin and then in another stole their garbage. That's because someone along the way thought that these little bandits were so adorable and they thought it would be neat to feed them and then go and brag about how a critter ate out of their hands. If the momma of those babies were really hungry, she could have bitten my daddy. Then daddy would have to go to the hospital and have series of rabies shots-not fun! What's really sad about it, is the parents teach the kids this and the next thing you know, child has been bitten.

If it's a much bigger critter, like a bear for instances, what do you think is going to happen to that bear, once it has had taste of human food? Yep, he's going to search out yet more human food. Before you know, he will get so agressive that he might really seriously hurt a human. Yeah, the human is going to be in a lot of pain, maybe in the hospital and possibly scarred for life (if not dead). The bear on the other hand gets hunted down, shot and killed....

Many folks think that deer make wonder pets. Yeah they pretty cool to look at, but at a distant. Mom and dad have a mineral block out for them, but it's far away from my territory, yet we all three can view them and enjoy them and no one will get hurt-specially me.

We are now coming upon spring and before we know there will be all sorts of baby critters all around us. More and more deer are getting run out of their territory because you humans keep building homes and such. So therefore there isn't any real safe place for babies to be born. A doe may drop her new born out in plain site. You might come across one and think it's abandon. PLEASE don't touch it!! Momma hasn't forgotten about her newborn and she is not very far away. It's okay to view it-but keep a distant. Don't get so close that momma is so scared that she won't come back.

I see my mommy shed a tear or two when she sees an injured animal and I know she wants to help it in so many ways.  But she also knows that's part of the Circle of Life and as much as we hate to see the poor thing suffer, it is on the food chain to yet another type of critter.  Also remember an injured animal could also be ten times more dangerous.  If you believe you need to help try contacting your local game & fish wildlife folks-maybe they can help or direct you to some one that can help the poor critter.  Unfortunately there are not too many vets out there that willing to give a helping hand...

So the next time you go camping, or maybe a hike in the wild; just remember you are on different turf, it belongs to the wild life out there.  So repect them, Don't feed them.