Feeding human food to wildlife can cause illness or death

Save Our Lakes Alliance3 members are grateful for the story the Cape Gazette ran about the Keep Wildlife Wild signs, bringing attention to the fact that it has been difficult to enforce their intent.

Alliance founder and President Sallie Forman would like to present the rest of the story. The reason SOLA3’s logo is on the sign is that it initiated the idea and explained need for these signs with the City of Rehoboth. Once the city approved, the alliance designed the sign and paid for about 20 of them to be installed by Rehoboth staff at Silver Lake and Lake Gerar.

The 2017 dedication of the signs was attended by Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, Mayor Paul Kuhns, then-Commissioner Kathy McGuiness, City Manager Sharon Lynn and others from the community.

This project is part of the alliance’s mission to educate the public on good environmental practices. Feeding wildlife human food is not healthy. Ducks, geese, turtles and fish have specialized diets, and they can become malnourished or die if fed the wrong foods. Also, they cannot distinguish food from wrappers or foil, which if ingested can make them very sick.

The alliance encourages viewing wildlife at a distance while remembering that wild animals should stay wild and their space should be respected.

SOLA3 is the only nonprofit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to protecting, preserving and maintaining Silver Lake, Lake Comegys and Lake Gerar.