A fed bear is a dead bear

[Guest guest]

>FEED THE STARVING MAKES ONE A COMPASSIONATE CITIZEN.

 

 

So-called compassion that increases the risk of suffering and

death on the part of the beneficiary is not to be praised,

encouraged, or emulated.

 

Sandeep Jain made a very important point in comparing the

consequences of causing street dogs and feral cats to congregate by

feeding them, and the consequences of feeding monkeys.

 

Indeed, the consequences of feeding street dogs and feral

cats are identical to the consequences of feeding wildlife, because

street dogs and feral cats are also inhabiting the ecological niche

they have evolved to fill.

 

Unlike most wildlife, street dogs and feral cats can be

tamed and brought into successful closer relationships with

humans--but, as with wildlife, one is not doing them any favors by

encouraging them into a halfway relationship, where they are fed by

people who then do not take responsibility for the consequences of

having amended their behavior in ways that become problematic to

others.

 

In the U.S., when bears had been hunted to scarcity a

generation and more ago, and people lost their traditional fear of

bears, many suburban residents became quite careless about storing

their garbage, and some people, including both hunters trying to

bait bears to be shot and people who thought they were being

" compassionate, " began deliberately putting food out for bears.

 

Of course this had the predictable consequence, increasing

conflicts between humans and bears to the point that many states

re-instituted bear hunting, decades after it had been outlawed.

 

Fortunately the expression " a fed bear is a dead bear " began

to gain popularity. Now hundreds of communities have banned feeding

bears, some states also forbid feeding bears, and a person who

feeds bears is looked upon by many & perhaps most animal lovers as a

person whose stupidity is likely to get the bears killed.

 

Although the number of bears in the U.S. continues to

recover, cases of human/bear conflict are at last decreasing.

 

The same principle needs to become part of the humane ethos

as regards street dogs and feral cats: a fed dog is a dead dog. A

fed cat is a dead cat.

 

Only if the feeder is willing and able to take responsibility

for preventing the adverse consequences of feeding these animals

should feeding be done--and that means bringing the dogs or cats into

a home environment. Dogs in a home cannot form potentially dangerous

packs, and chase people, livestock, and vehicles. Cats and dogs

in homes cannot disturb merchants and neighbors with their defecation.

 

Dogs and cats making their livings at large, like other

wildlife, including monkeys, need to be dispersed to do their jobs,

living at no more density than the normal carrying capacity of the

habitat.

 

 

>I do not know how to make the starving pup or the monkey understand

 

Street animals are not starving--unless they are sick,

injured, or have become accustomed to being fed, and then been

abandoned.

 

Street dogs, cats, and monkeys have been among us for

thousands of years, in great abundance, because they are every bit

as good at making a living in urban environments as humans, and

perhaps better, since they make their livings chiefly from human

refuse and the rodents attracted by our refuse.

 

I have observed thousands of street dogs and feral cats, in

all parts of the world, spending hundreds of hours watching their

feeding behavior. I have seen many such animals who were suffering

from parasites, who badly needed worming and mange treatment. I

have seen some such animals who were starving because of illness,

injury, or an abrupt and calamitous habitat change causing the loss

of a familiar food source.

 

Seldom, however, have I seen an authentic street dog or

feral cat who was not supremely able to find enough food, in

circumstances where abandoned pets quickly starve. The lack of

refrigeration and abundance of food waste ensures in all parts of

India that I have visited--and that is many regions--that there is

more than enough food to sustain the street dogs, the feral cats,

and pigs, monkeys, cows, and crows as well, in larger numbers

than live on the streets anywhere else in the world.

 

Any animal who has learned that humans will give food in

response to begging will beg, because begging is easier work than

hunting and scavenging. But that does not mean the animal is

starving, any more than a bear should be presumed to be starving

just because he bashes a door down and ransacks a kitchen in search

of jelly doughnuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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