For the birds?
It is perhaps the most look-the-other-way law in the city of Rehoboth Beach: Do not feed the birds at the Turtle Bridge.
Signs advise people not to do it, but visitors frequently feed ducks and geese from the footbridge between Silver Lake’s Tot Lot and Rehoboth Elementary School.
The problem is that uneaten food is drawing in nuisance critters such as raccoons, opossums, skunks and foxes.
“We like to see the children feeding animals. It’s such a pleasant thing, but it’s really not in the geese’ and the ducks’ best interest,” said Libby Stiff, member of the city’s Animal Issues Committee.
Stiff said while some critters are good for the environment - opossums feast on ticks, for example - bread meant for ducks draws other critters to the area. While there isn’t a whole lot the city can do, she suggested making the sign at the Turtle Bridge telling people not to feed the animals. The existing one is dwarfed by a sign asking motorcyclists not to ride on the bridge.
“We have an ordinance,” Commissioner and Chairwoman Lorraine Zellers said. “Children do like it; it’s a time-honored tradition. But it really is harmful to them. The bread is not nutritious for them. It doesn’t provide the right nutrients. They [the animals] think they’re hungry, they depend on us for food, and they become pests in the neighborhoods.”
Zellers, who lives near the Turtle Bridge, named in part for the turtles that congregate there, in Country Club Estates, said the answer is better education on the city’s website and better signs instead of banning feeding at the bridge. She said corn was a better alternative than bread, but that feeding the animals can also cause overcrowding and the animals becoming dependent on humans for food.
Stiff said the topic of feeding the animals has been discussed on and off for a while. She said she believes the animals are being done a disservice and that she brought the subject back up in part, as a response to the incident this summer where a 13-year-old girl baited a seagull with food and then clubbed it to death on the beach.
Suzanne Thurman, director of the Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute, said bread in particular is not a good food for wild animals because their digestive systems cannot digest it. She said feeding wild animals makes them reliant on humans for food and keeps them from foraging for natural food sources.
“It puts the animal at risk,” Thurman said.
She said if people are going to feed animals, give them food that it is better for them, such as grass and natural vegetation for ducks and geese, and live fish for turtles. While Thurman said it is good that feeding the animals allows people to interact with nature, a better way of doing so is photographing them. She said she would also like to see more informational signs on what animals live in the lake.
Zellers said she would bring the matter before the city commissioners to determine if the committee should continue to investigate different signs and education initiatives.
