LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Squirrels Being Conditioned for Handouts

BREMERTON - In response to the pictures of “wild” squirrels being fed in Evergreen-Rotary Park, Kitsap Sun, 11/9/10:

Aren’t the squirrels cute, cuddly little creatures? Encouraging the feeding of them, however, upsets the balance of nature in how it relates to their natural instinct to forage and the overall squirrel population. This is not right.

It’s the same reason “Don’t Feed the Animals” signs are posted in the wild. Once conditioned to a certain behavior, wild animals make that behavior part of their instinct to survive and it becomes the rule rather than the exception.

Living directly across from the park, I regularly walk past and have been approached closely, (less than two feet), by one, two and even three squirrels at a time looking for a handout — even though I haven’t even hinted at anything in my hands for them to consume.

They wouldn’t do this unless they were conditioned to receiving something. Remember the mouse in the maze with food at the middle? Let the squirrels sustain themselves.

They don’t really need our help.

Bob Miller