Illegal to feed the squirrels?!

[squirrely pearly]

Ajc.com (atlanta journal constitution) I saw this today..

The proposed ordinance

What it would outlaw: Feeding of animals such as beavers, bobcats, chipmunks, coyotes, deer, ducks, foxes, geese, groundhogs, hawks, muskrats, opossums, otters, raccoons, squirrels and vultures.

What it would exclude: Fish and songbirds

Areas covered: Public and private property in the city

Penalties: First-time violators would receive a warning. Each additional violation is subject to a fine not to exceed $1,000.

Enforcement: The city's ordinance enforcement officer would issue citations.

:nono :nono

[lizharrell1]

So, okay. You throw the food out for the "birds" to get it....is it really YOUR fault if the squirrels get it instead?:D

[tomcics]

Here in Michigan in a close by city to mine, a woman was arrested/fined for feeding squirrels, this particular very older woman had escaped a repressive government to come here to the united states only to be arrested for feeding the squirrels. They said it was attracting rats even though no rats were found.

[Nibblette]

"Land of the free" my @$$

[Anne]

There are hundreds of stupid laws on the books all across America, fortunately most of these "old joke laws" are not enforced. The laws need to be changed or not made!!!!!

[Bugsie]

So, okay. You throw the food out for the "birds" to get it....is it really YOUR fault if the squirrels get it instead?:D


:jump :jump Good point:thumbsup

[virgo062]

"Land of the free" my @$$


:rofl4 :rofl4 :rofl4 :rofl4 :rofl4

[tomcics]

Here's a reference to the arrest case I mentioned earlier in thread:
Nov 20: On Squirrels....
I was sitting in the living room with my daughters, looking out the front window wishing for the millionth time that I could just go outside and plant something. An elderly woman was walking past our house, and as I watched, she looked at our house, stopped in her tracks and started laughing. After a few seconds of standing there with a wide smile on her face, she went on her way. Okay, I had to take a look and figure out what exactly about our house had her so amused.

Here it is, along with some of the mess it made. It's kind of looking at me like "Do ya mind? I'm eating here!"
I pulled open the front door, and immediately saw the source of her delight: a rather chubby squirrel had decided to make one of the small pumpkins on our porch its breakfast. The squirrel didn't leave when I opened the door, so I rushed for my camera and started snapping away.

And why? Because squirrels are cute. Yeah, even after they dig up my tulip bulbs, get all the corn out of my garden before I get to harvest any, raid my bird feeders, and manage to get themselves into my attic, they're cute. In fact, I credit my love of backyard wildlife not to birds (which I absolutely love) but to squirrels. They're fun to watch, and they're always around. Our first summer here, when I was pregnant with my oldest, a female squirrel had a nest in our huge old silver maple in the yard. We had one of those crazy summer storms--full of wind and thunder and lightening. After it was over, her nest had been blown out of the tree. My husband found it on our back lawn, with three tiny, hairless baby squirrels inside. I cried like a baby, but I also remember at the time feeling both extremely grateful that my baby was growing safely inside me and extremely terrified that something bad can happen at any time. I'll blame that last on being hormonal and worried about the adventure of parenthood that was ahead of me. But I also know that I've paid much closer attention to squirrels since then.

The squirrel pulled Emily away from The Backyardigans for almost a full half hour.
So, I love squirrels. And, now my kids love squirrels. Emily ignored the lure of Noggin and watched the squirrel instead. Sarah blew kisses at the squirrel as it ate. My mother in law would never get this. She reminds me constantly that they're "nothing more than rats in trees" and, in all honesty, I think she's a little scared of them. I know plenty of others out there love squirrels, too. I thought of a lady from nearby Eastpointe, a notorious squirrel-lover, if there can be such a thing. Back in 2002 Luminita Marinas was ticketed by the city of Eastpointe for "littering" when she fed squirrels walnuts in a local park and outside of her apartment building. City officials claimed that the shells made a mess and that the nuts attracted rats. She fought it, was found guilty, put on probation, and told she could only feed the squirrels small amounts of nuts, in four designated areas, and had to clean up any shells within 24 hours. She was seen feeding squirrels in a non-designated area and was brought back into court again...this has been going on for a while. I'm not sure what the latest is, but the whole thing immediately brought two questions to mind:

1. Aren't walnut shells biodegradable, and, therefore, no more litter than sticks or leaves?
2. Didn't the city of Eastpointe have any more pressing concerns than one old lady feeding the squirrels???

So, as I watched the squirrel devour about half of the pumpkin, I thought of Ms. Marinas and thought that she'd probably enjoy this. And I thought about all of the cities that have started doing asinine things like outlawing feeding birds and squirrels, usually in the name of keeping the rats at bay. Note to pea-brained municipalities---if rats have found the birdseed or nuts that residents put out in their yards, they were there already, probably drawn by garbage, restaurants, stores, etc....all much easier ways to get food than scavenging for dropped millet. Try making businesses keep their dumpsters securely locked and have them emptied before they overflow, and that might take care of some of the problem. Let's stop making residents pay for the greed and/or irresponsibility of many business owners who are trying to save a buck. I don't know if this is an issue everywhere, but in my area it certainly is. I had to get that off my chest. I'd just hate having someone tell me that I couldn't feed animals in my own backyard :-)


See, all this from a little (okay, not so little) squirrel. And mom says they're just fluffy-tailed rats!

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[squirrely pearly]

:thinking :thinking :thinking :thinking can you imagine being arrested in your own yard for feeding squirrels?!!

it actually said they are doing this because it messes up the eco system..people actually feed coyotes :thinking and fox..and then the coyotes and fox get lazy and don't hunt the rats , therefore making the rat population skyrocket..

what would you feed a coyote?!!!:crazy and WHY would you feed a coyote :thinking ...I'd be scared!!:shakehead plus the fact then you would have coyotes in your yard instead of the darling little squirrely tails!!:Love_Icon :Love_Icon

[island rehabber]

Stuff like this always brings me back to something a Parks Dept official said in the New York Times a few years ago. The article was about rats in NY city parks, and how the pigeon and squirrel-lovers were, according to some neighborhood residents, to blame for the situation because they were putting out food. This young Parks official defended the pidge and squirrel lovers, and was quoted as saying something like: "The typical complainer in these cases is a young, upscale mom who is screaming at me about bird lovers causing rats, while behind her back her darling toddler dumps a three-dollar muffin into the bushes....."

Messy, careless people cause rats, not little old ladies with walnuts. :D

[squirrely pearly]

"The typical complainer in these cases is a young, upscale mom who is screaming at me about bird lovers causing rats, while behind her back her darling toddler dumps a three-dollar muffin into the bushes....."

I've seen that happen! little kids just throw away so much food on the ground!:shakehead :shakehead I always am hoping the squirrels and birds find it..and if they don't then maybe the raccoons and possums will. :crazy

[squirrely pearly]

I don't know how to do quotes^^ but that last post was supposed to be one from IR:thinking

[crazysquirrels]

In crapifornia it is illegal to have a squirrel, release a squirrel, or have one in your posseion unless your are licensed. So if one is injured it is illegal to help them. Somebody has been breaking the law:poke :nono :wahoo :jump :multi :wott

[island rehabber]

I don't know how to do quotes^^ but that last post was supposed to be one from IR:thinking

That's ok SP....you hit "quote" instead of reply when you want that post to appear as a quote on your new post. :D

[Anne]

Ah ha, education from IR:D :D Wondered how you did that! Oooops, almost a thread jack:flash3 :flash3

[astra]

So true about businesses and such. While in college, I used to work for this food business on Long Island and, oh, boy, how those garbage bins would overflow!... now, having been in Toronto for some time, I've heard from pest control professionals who regularly check up our workplace that there is a rat influx periodically and not due to some people giving a handful of food to birds and animals.
By the way, squirrels are not rats with bushy tails. I have nothing against rats at all, but this needs some clarification because I've heard quite a few people referring to squirrels as 'rats with bushy tails' in somewhat derogatory way. Yes, both, rats and squirrels belong to the order Rodentia, so they are rodents. However, they belong to completely different families: squirrels to Sciuridae, rats to Muridae. Same as we, homo sapiens, belong to the order of Primates and even the same family Hominidae together with most monkeys, but are not the same as monkeys, are we?:) Moreover, humans belong to the same family as gorillas and chimpanzees, yet, are fundamentally different, although with many similarities. So, accordingly, squirrels and rats who belong to different families, are not the same, Similar, but not the same. :)

[Ultra Peepi]

nice one for pointing that out astra... i don't like it when people use tree rat for that reason too and it goes unsaid often.

so many laws are outdated/discriminatory/wrong that it seems hard to find the useful ones.:dono

[Moneypenny4M]

In crapifornia it is illegal to have a squirrel, release a squirrel, or have one in your posseion unless your are licensed. So if one is injured it is illegal to help them. Somebody has been breaking the law:poke :nono :wahoo :jump :multi :wott

I can just imagine how much people would love it if I became licensed around here!

ONE neighbor complains that they're digging up his garden. Live trapped and released (right in his yard -for now)

Another (further away) neighbor complains that something ate his truck wires and so that something must DIE and set snap traps right outside where ANYthing can get caught in it. Snap traps are illegal. Somebody complained and it was investigated.

Somebody complained to city that squirrels are going in my house, in my walls, etc- I own my house and nobody lives here but me so how is this anyone else's business? I have a couple of squirrels that sleep in a crawlspace between window and storm window. They can't get IN. So technically they ARE outside! And even if they weren't- isn't that MY BUSINESS? (Hey, I'm never trapping or killing anybody!)

I've had it verified that IT IS NOT ILLEGAL FOR ME TO FEED THE SQUIRRELS HERE. So there! :multi

Stresses one out, though!!!

[2ndHandRanchRescue]

In Illinois we have crazy laws. I've seen them enforced for squirrel, raccoon and deer. But at ALL the farm stores you can buy "Deer Corn" and "Deer Candy"
It is totally illegal to help an injured squirrel - huge fines --- but I can apply for a free permit to kill as many critters as I want in the manner that I want off season if they are bothering me.

Here's our law:

Feeding Wildlife
It is unlawful to make available food,
salt, mineral blocks or other products
for ingestion by wild deer or other wildlife
in areas where wild deer are present

Then get this HUGE fine if you pick up a dead raptor - even on your own property. And HUGE fine if you pick up a deer shed while hiking in ANY state Park. The law in Illinois is as such that all wildlife belongs to "the people of Illinois" so no one is ever allowed to have any wildlife - ever.

Illinois is Psycho!

[Prairiewolf]

Then get this HUGE fine if you pick up a dead raptor - even on your own property. And HUGE fine if you pick up a deer shed while hiking in ANY state Park. The law in Illinois is as such that all wildlife belongs to "the people of Illinois" so no one is ever allowed to have any wildlife - ever.

Illinois is Psycho!

I believe this is due to the Migratory Bird Act. Sometimes Civil Disobedience is required to do what is right instead of what is legal. Just my view on it.tinfoil

[Indiana]

It's time to stop feeding the Atlanta city government officials. they become overly aggressive when they become accustomed to humans feeding them.

[Indiana]

:thinking :thinking :thinking :thinking can you imagine being arrested in your own yard for feeding squirrels?!!

it actually said they are doing this because it messes up the eco system..people actually feed coyotes :thinking and fox..and then the coyotes and fox get lazy and don't hunt the rats , therefore making the rat population skyrocket..

what would you feed a coyote?!!!:crazy and WHY would you feed a coyote :thinking ...I'd be scared!!:shakehead plus the fact then you would have coyotes in your yard instead of the darling little squirrely tails!!:Love_Icon :Love_Icon

there is no eco system left in most urban areas, there is nothing for the animals to eat, while humans spend countless sums on ways to lose weight.

My idea for a great diet. Take the money you would have spent, stuffing your face and spend it on food for the animals.

[Rainy9]

there is no eco system left in most urban areas, there is nothing for the animals to eat, while humans spend countless sums on ways to lose weight.

My idea for a great diet. Take the money you would have spent, stuffing your face and spend it on food for the animals.
I gotta agree with both of your posts. (ROFLMAO @ the overfeeding of officials!). Spending your "would have been stuffing your face money" on wildlife food sounds awesome. I think it would be cool to buy that food in the form of a tree that bears fruit or nuts, since trees is also something that was taken away from them when us humans set up shop. Food trees/Shelter trees! A 2 for 1 deal!

[gs1]

It's time to stop feeding the Atlanta city government officials. they become overly aggressive when they become accustomed to humans feeding them.


:thumbsup


:jump :jump :jump