Quote:
Originally Posted by
spolicas 
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CariLynn
Call your Dept. of Fish and Game and Wildlife office. I have a neighbor who was feeding vultures! Because she was putting out meat or rotten meat, depended on her mood, it also brought all sorts of fun things to our farm. When I called the above, they did go out and she did get a verbal warning, she ended our friendship, after having asked her politely multiple times, and is quite rude and nasty now. We still have trouble with her AND 2 other people feeding the wildlife on our road so I live by the 3 S's...shoot, shovel, and shut up.
I look at it that my chickens depend on me to take care of them. Mine do not roam, they do not get into anyone's yard or dig up bulbs or spray urine on their horse blankets (like the above neighbors cat has done to me), or anything else. So why should I have to put up with a crazy old woman who has nothing better to do than feed the wildlife around me because for her, she wants to see it up close...if that is the case, go to a zoo!!
I called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and it is perfectly legal to feed/handle raptors in The State of Florida - so long as they are not being penned. I am going to call the Florida Department of Agriculture and report her as a nuisance to my farm, maybe?
I do know in The State of Florida that we do have a law which allows us to buy fireworks that lift off the ground for agricultural purposes (otherwise they are banned). As most people abuse the law, I am unable to find much of anything that is helpful related to agriculture use online. I do know though if I get an Agricultural Fireworks Permit that I can light off ground-to-air rockets whenever this lady or the birds are around in order to protect my property and defend my right to farm. Has anyone used this?
I would get the permit for fireworks... The lady is the problem because she is harming the hawks as well as bringing them to your area in an unnatural manner rather than the few who may be in the area because it is their territory...
Plus, she is probably hurting them through the diet: you can print the info below and tape it to her horses stall door... It is an excerpt from a longer article at the linked site.
When you see her feeding, go out with the boomer fireworks, because you would be doing a favor to your chickens and the hawks!
http://www.eraptors.org/backyard-feeding.htm
Should you purposefully feed raptors? Probably not. Remember, you ARE feeding them by creating what is, in effect, a somewhat unnatural congregation of their food items at your backyard feeders. It is often difficult to attract them to food that isn't moving, for only some of the raptors are naturally scavengers. Raptors are territorial and it's unlikely you will attract any but those already living there; the continued presence of any other is likely to open border skirmishes. It would be impossible to provide a balanced diet for raptors without providing whole animals... Anyone willing to provide mice, rats or, say, day-old chickens? Very young animals (like day-old chicks) used as food need supplements to meet the requisite calcium/phosphorus levels and ratio. A pure meat or organ diet is grossly and dangerously deficient in calcium and a perfect prescription for metabolic bone disease, especially if your neighborhood raptors are feeding their own, fast-growing chicks with the food you supply. Organ meats from commercially grown chickens may be high in the food additives used to make chickens put on weight quickly: steroids and antibiotics. Finally, those predators that enrapture you may enrage your neighbor. It is simply not fair to habituate these birds to hand-outs or attract them into danger - that, to me, is a betrayal.
Why would someone feel the need to feed raptors? If simply trying to attract them to your yard, putting up nest boxes and attracting their natural food supply is a better solution. If you want to supplement them during a weather-related food shortage, you may not be doing them any favors. Many species of raptors are not true migrants, but they will move around in keeping with their food supply. Unless you are willing to meet the ENTIRE food needs of the raptor in your yard, you are doing it a disservice by keeping it from seeking more plentiful food elsewhere. A small active bird like a kestrel can eat its own body weight in food each day (depending on the caloric content of that food, and the time of the year: i.e., energy demands of cold weather, nesting, molting). If trying to distract them from the smorgasbord of prey species you have attracted to your feeders, forget it! Studies with feral or barn cats have shown that feeding them simply makes them healthier, more capable hunters; it does not keep them from hunting. My guess is that, given a choice, raptors would select the food on the wing. Best to provide your songbirds and quail with cover for when the raptors come to dine!
All in all, rather than feeding raptors (or raccoons or many other species that are trying to co-exist in the human-dominated landscape), you can make more positive, far-reaching contributions by the following actions and omissions: landscape with native plants that provide food and shelter at different times of the year for different species; provide a water feature; put up nest boxes; get rid of all or most of your lawn - it's a desert, in terms of wildlife habitat; don't use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides. It's hard not to get on a soapbox here, but there has been an alarming correlation reported in the veterinary literature of increased lympho-sarcoma in dogs whose owners use weed-and-feed products, and you can be sure it's not just in dogs. Rehabilitators see wildlife with signs of toxicity coming from areas with recent use of chemical fertilizers or slug bait. And there really is no such thing as a safe pesticide, rodenticide, or herbicide - they're designed to kill. Remember, survival of the fittest dictates that a young screech owl perfecting its hunting skills is much more likely to go after the Japanese beetle spinning in circles from organo-phosphate poisoning (it's a neuro-toxin) than the unaffected, sure-flying one; same for poisoned mice. Be a good citizen of the wider community and enjoy the diversity of nature! If you create a balanced community, the raptors will be there, too.
