Living in Harmony With Wildlife

We cause our wild neighbors far more trouble than they cause us, as each day we invade thousands of acres of their territory and destroy their homes. Here are some simple tips for living in harmony with our wild friends.

• If a bird is trapped inside your house, wait until dark, then open a window and put a light outside of it. Turn out all house lights—the bird should fly out toward the light.

• Cap your chimney. When birds sit on top of a chimney for warmth, they can inhale toxic fumes; they may also fall in and die.

• Deny mice and rats access to food in your home—this is the best way to discourage them from taking up residence. Store all food in airtight, rodent-proof containers. If you must trap an occasional rodent, use a cruelty-free live trap made for this purpose. If the trap is plastic, make sure it has air holes, and check it frequently, at least every hour.

• Take care with trash.

• Rinse out each can, put the top inside so it can’t slice a tongue, and crush the open end of the can as flat as possible.

• Recycle paper, metal, and glass whenever possible.

• Cut open one side of empty cardboard and plastic containers so squirrels and other small animals cannot get their faces or heads trapped in them.

• Drop pop-tops into empties so they cannot slit an animal’s mouth or throat.

• Cut apart all sections of plastic six-pack rings, including the inner diamonds.

• Choose paper bags at the grocery store.

Changing Perceptions and Finding Humane Solutions

Perhaps the greatest challenge that we face in fighting cruelty to wild animals is changing the way people perceive wildlife. Each year, millions of wild animals are killed because they are considered pests. Beavers, bats, geese, deer, pigeons, mice, snakes, and squirrels are some of the animals who often suffer horrific deaths because some people consider them a nuisance, but the list also includes wild horses, rabbits, prairie dogs, owls, wolves, bears, eagles, and mountain lions.
As alarming proportions of their homelands are lost to development, “wild” animals are forced to live in closer proximity to humans. With few places to go, they enter our homes, parks, golf courses, and urban areas desperately searching for food and shelter. Tragically, what they soon encounter are callous humans intent on killing them with poisons, traps, and countless other cruel methods.

Despite promises of harmless removal and relocation, what pest control companies and commercial trappers frequently do is just the opposite—as PETA’s cruelty caseworkers have seen time and again. Coots, ducks, and geese are secretly shot, gassed, and even bludgeoned to death with baseball bats; beavers are caught and drowned in body-gripping traps or are sealed up alive in their own homes; and animals of all kinds are simply left to die from injuries or starvation. Even well-intentioned local animal control agents are often inadequately trained and unprepared to deal with these animal emergencies humanely.

Ending such cruelty is a complex and long-term challenge. But that has not kept PETA’s Domestic Animal and Wildlife Rescue & Information Department (DAWR&I) from working day and night to change the way wild animals are treated. Every day, DAWR&I’s wildlife experts, cruelty investigators, and rescue staff work closely with homeowners, business managers, and municipal officials to develop effective programs that resolve conflicts between humans and wildlife without the use of cruel methods.

An important focus of their work is to “combat the fears with the facts.” Some in the pest control industry rely on public ignorance to drive their business and to get away with inhumane methods, exploiting myths that “nuisance animals” are dangerous, dirty, and carriers of disease. So PETA has created this free and informative Web site debunking the myths and offering humane alternatives to cruel wildlife control methods. Through PETA’s hard work and persistence, more people are turning first to humane alternatives to “pest” control, which means that thousands of animals have been and will be saved from this often overlooked and unreported cruelty.

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