Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Protestors Oppose Control of Raccoons to Save Federally Listed Piping Plovers

This is at The Wildlife Society Blog, a blog and organization I enthusiastically endorse. My input?
The raccoon problem is yet another wildlife crisis the TNR proponents have contributed to with their feeding stations. I recall an interview Mr. J.R. Yeager, a former TNR manager who has served on the San Francisco Commission of Animal Control and Welfare had with Linda Winter, the former director of the Cats Indoors Campaign.
Mr. Yeager stated in part:
“Late this summer I began observing an adult raccoon and four offspring traveling from one feral cat feeding station to another eating the cat food I put out, sometimes even before the cats had a chance at it. My first thought was: quit eating my cat food. But then one evening at a particular location where I had seen them most often there was just one of the offspring, all alone, and it dawned on me then that the way its mother had taught it to fend for itself was from an artificial food supply that I had created. And if I withdrew that food supply what would happen to that small animal? And then of course I wondered if the cat food I was putting down every night was possibly responsible for an unnatural reproduction rate of at least this raccoon family? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do know that my actions are most likely having a disruptive impact on the natural order of the wildlife in this area.”

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