Feeding birds and squirrels but food snaffled by off-lead dogs.

[OrangeGob]

There's a poster at the entrance to my local park asking people to help feed, water and look after the park's wildlife but to do so in a respectful and tidy way.

I take stale bread, cereal dust, left over nuts etc. to the park when I can and leave it on the tree stumps dotted around the park designated for people to leave food. Tree stumps are about waist height so dogs and children can't reach them.

On my dog walk today, three women with big dogs tried to co-opt me into a conversation about the irresponsibility of people who leave food out because their dogs can reach the stumps and snaffle whatever people leave.

I told them I disagreed, that they should have better control of their dogs around the stumps; that feeding is encouraged by various local groups including the Council; and that people generally leave food responsibly and respectfully (i.e. on the designated stumps, not just randomly chucked into the long grass).

Who is BU here?

Sorry, agree with others. The dogs are doing everyone a favour by cleaning up the trash that is likely to encourage more vermin to the area.

(Though, if I was a dog owner, I'd move heaven and hell to stop my dog eating left out food - as soon as mould starts to appear it is seriously toxic to dogs).

I'm sure the squirrels and ducks can take care of their own food in summer.
In the middle of winter maybe give the ducks some bird seed.
The council are asking for trouble expecting random people to feed wildlife.

What council is this? Seems unusual.

The council should absolutely not be asking visitors to leave food out for wildlife. Birds and squirrels don't need to be eating old cereal and stale bread. It's not their natural diet. Leaving stuff like that around encourages rats - not that I actually dislike rats, personally, but obviously they can become very numerous in parks etc.

I live opposite a massive park with a lake and there are signs asking people not to feed the birds with bread and leftovers.

I mean it's mid summer I'm sure the trees are a wash with actual food and the ground has tasty worms and other tasty critters . Animals don't need your stale sour dough and nut dust ! Of course dogs are going to snaffle food !

Could the organiser put up actual feeders or maybe bird tables if they want to feed the starving wildlife

I doubt the local council want the kitchen waste strewn round the park

as soon as mould starts to appear it is seriously toxic to dogs

And indeed to the birds they are claiming to help.

I don't think bread is great for birds is it ?

I'm not disagreeing - I was surprised when I moved here that the park committee encourage wildlife feeding. But they do. And it seems to be supported by the Council. It's possible that the people who put up the poster just added the Council logo without permission I guess. But our local councilors have a fortnightly drop-in/surgery in the park so I guess they'd have spotted it.

Yeah I think a council logo on a print out is more than likely. The park committee sound bonkers.

@Mrsjayy They're absolutely crackers and they've infiltrated local NextDoor as well to amplify the insanity.

Maybe suggest in next door that they put feeders and bird tables up rather than throwing food about!

You can't think they are that mad of your been doing what they ask 😅

Well this 😃

Squirrels, rats and foxes should NOT be encouraged in urban areas.

Animals such and birds should not be given bread and other unnatural food to them, even in winter but why on earth now would this be encouraged?

Them encouraging people to look after local wildlife isn't even on the scale of the mad stuff the park committee put on NextDoor or what goes on at committee meetings.

Well ... now we all need to know what that stuff is! 😀

For example:
There was a hole in a fence which needed repairing. A chap, in his own time and at his own expense repaired it but did it incorrectly. Very sadly a hedgehog died because it was impaled on the repaired fence. A committee member put pictures of the impaled hedgehog all over the park and all over ND with a warning not to do botched repairs. The chap who'd done the repairs had been apologising profusely, felt terrible and asked for the pictures to be removed - not least because they were incredibly distressing for children using the park. The committee member posted on ND that the chap (named him) was trying to erase evidence of his wildlife crime, and called the RSPCA on him. He's an older chap, not in brilliant health and it really did have a huge effect on him.

Another example:
There was an issue with teenagers causing trouble in the park in the evenings. I don't actually think they were that bad - smoking weed, being loud, a bit of litter but nothing too terrible. The committee suggested banning teenagers from the park unless accompanied by an adult. When asked how this would work in practice, they genuinely suggested asking for ID at the gates.

Another example:
We have a yearly fete in the park. A local band were due to play - for free - but one of the committee members took exception to the lead singer having face/neck tattoos because this person felt it wasn't 'family friendly', and tried to cancel the band about half hour before they were due on stage.

There are so many others. They're bonkers. The committee meetings that are open to the public are like something from a sitcom - me and DP genuinely go to them because they're better than TV.

Bread is not good for any birds, it has no nutritional value. Squirrels shouldn't be fed, they are vermin who take songbird eggs and chicks and destroy trees. Sounds like the rescue woman behind this is a bunny hugger with no environmental or conservation knowledge. Goodness knows why the council think it's a good idea, your park must be overrun with rats. As for the dogs eating the bread - don't leave bread out.

Feeding park wildlife like this is a really bad idea, whatever the signs/council say. It encourages non-native pests like rats and grey squirrels, and the vast majority of the rest will be eaten by common species that don't actually need helping. This then puts more pressure (through competition and predation) on less common species that are actually struggling.

Feeding ducks (in or out of the water) also leads to water fouling and poor water quality. This is true of grain/seed as well as bread.

Supporting park wildlife would be much better done by having more diverse habitats such as long grass wildflower areas and wilder areas for native scrub rather than just mown grass etc.

Yep feeding vermin, especially rats.🐀🐀🐀

Rentokil will also be raking it in when the rats move in with their rapidly extending families 🤣 are there residential houses surrounding the park?

I saw one well meaning woman leaving old pork pies out for the poor creatures in the park who were "starving" apparently. Just the thing on a hot day, rotten meat to poison the squirrels and local dogs.

it sounds like there's nothing to stop you (or anyone else who cares about the wildlife) from making some new posters explaining that bread is bad for ducks, and asking people not to feed animals at all during the summer (and including the council logo!)