Stop Feeding Waterfowl Persuasive Essay

1275 Words3 Pages

Many people in today’s society find pleasure and relaxation by going to a park or public place to feed bird’s old bread or French fries from a fast food restaurant. Little do most people know that this causes problems among birds such as taking from their ability to find normal food, changing their migration patterns to causing protein deficiencies or over intake; that can cause health problems in mostly water fowl species. The most common health concern that is caused from birds being fed by humans is Angel wing, this is caused by birds eating too much protein and this comes from eating things such as bread or foods full of carbohydrates.
Angel wing is known under many names: flip wing, drooped wing, dropped wing and many others(Johnson). …show more content…

This shows that people don’t understand that there are side effects to feeding the wildlife and that it could create unnatural tendencies with the animals. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation has said, "If everyone stops feeding waterfowl, the waterfowl won't disappear. Families can still visit sites to enjoy viewing ducks and geese. A child can still be encouraged to learn more about waterfowl and their natural habits. And some zoos offer feeding of captive waterfowl” (Stop Feeding Waterfowl). These are some solutions so that you can still go to the park and enjoy wildlife, but instead of feeding them you could educate yourself and others. Or if you really want to feed animals go to the zoo and feed animals that are already not …show more content…

One way would to be to put informational signs by parks, lakes and bridges and instate fines for people to pay if they are seen or caught feeding wildlife. Another is to institute a program that must be completed along with the fine that makes the offender have to be provided with the information through s sit through lecture method , plus make it so that they have to help spread the knowledge along by making it community service to educate others. The money raised through the fines would pay for the information and the mandatory classes and for how the information is advertised to the general public. A certain percentage of the fines could go to help preserve natural habitats for the wildlife to survive naturally in. Some cities have even started to enforce “don’t feed the duck campaigns” (Here's Another Good Reason). Such as in Spokane, Oregon the Parks and Recreation department had to find homes for more than 40 ducks that were victims to angel wing. They implemented, “don’t feed the duck campaign” so that they don’t have to regulate people but to educate them (Here's Another Good Reason). “In West Haven, Connecticut, 30 swans died from starvation at an artificial feeding site during the harsh winter of 93-94. Meanwhile, over 800 swans survived nearby on natural food” (Stop Feeding Waterfowl). This could have been avoided if they were never introduced to food

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