Don't feed the freaking squirrels.

[nwhiker]

Went to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge today. It was packed. It's a great place to get a nice long walk, on a boardwalk, and to see a bunch of birds.

A few years back, all the picnic tables were essentially off limits because of demanding, aggressive squirrels.

Doesn't surprise me. The number of parents who took photos of their little darlings offering Cheetos or the like to the squirrels actually shocked me.

First of all, you don't feed wild animals, hello.

Second of all... Letting small children -some of the ones were saw were barely above toddler age- that close to wild animals? NSM, imo.

But I'm sure the photos get plenty of likes on Instagram.

Was I an awful parent who never let her kids feed the deer, the ducks, the squirrels etc? I don't think so, I think it was the right thing to do, though I'm conflicted because the kids were clearly loving feeding the little varmints and mine never had that experience.

Comments

[siamese1]

We limited it to feeding animals in petting zoos. Got the obligatory photos and no wildlife was harmed. ;)

[nwhiker]

Good point! We did do petting zoos and the like, so they do have that experience.