Police Warn Residents Against Feeding Wild Animals (ICYMI)

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Image: Mountain lions like this one have been spotted in parts of Virginia (Shutterstock).

By ETHAN LEVINE (Patch Staff)

When people leave food for wild animals, their hearts are often in the right place. They mean well. In their minds, they’re contributing to the health and survival of the animal.

But Fairfax County police are urging residents to stop feeding animals, explaining that the practice brings about more bad than good in the long run.

As police explained, when people regularly feed wild animals like coyotes, raccoons and foxes, it allows those animals to grow more comfortable and less fearful of humans. This can lead to aggressive behavior from these animals, and can result in danger for humans or their domesticated pets.

“While the intention of those feeding wildlife may be to help these animals, it can create a problem or a potentially dangerous situation within their community,” said Katherine Edwards, a wildlife management specialist with the Fairfax County Police Department. “The reality is that healthy wild animals may lose their lives because they have become habituated to people after learning to associate humans with food.”

Feeding wild animals also can attract animals carrying diseases that can spread throughout residential areas. And, as the police noted, human food is not providing these wild animals with the nutrients they need. It can actually worsen an animal’s health and cause serious malnutrition.

So while feeding a lonely wild animal may seem like the right thing to do in the moment, that’s actually not the case.

“The best thing to do is refrain from feeding wildlife to minimize the impacts on the surrounding community and the animals themselves,” Edwards said.