I’ve been lucky to be able to work with Voices for Animals (www.vfa-online.org), combining two things I’m passionate about – design and animal welfare.
I’ve done a few small projects for them, most recently putting together flyers for their South Side Park Wildlife Awareness Day. This wildlife awareness day is another step in their ongoing campaign to make Pittsburgh a no-kill community. Pittsburgh officials have opted to round up and kill most of the flock at the park, despite promising to put a comprehensive non-lethal strategy into effect. VFA will be passing out these flyers around the park to inform the community about some things they can do to cut down the goose population in a humane way.
Most of the people who feed the geese and ducks at Riverfront Park do so with generous intentions and consider the action helpful, but unfortunately it does more harm than good. The public must be educated on the reasons why this is harmful – the posted “Please do not feed the ducks and geese” signs do not explain the reasons behind the message.
Feeding the ducks and geese can cause a number of problems. These include: poor nutrition, spread of disease, unnatural behavior, pollution, overcrowding, and delayed migration (in migratory birds). The most generous thing you can do for these animals is to simply not feed them. Ducks and geese are wild animals and are capable of finding food on their own. In order for their natural behaviors to emerge, they must have this opportunity.
Overcrowding has caused serious problems in the past, and an abundant food source will only bring more waterfowl to the area. Last year, the RIDC (Regional Industrial Development Corp.) paid the USDA to kill many of the geese residing in Southside Riverfront Park due to the geese occasionally frequenting the property it manages across the river. The birds needed more land due to their numbers.
We must not allow this situation to occur again, so please, do not contribute to the problem. Observe and enjoy the geese as a close part of nature, but allow them to be the wild animals they are and please, do not feed them!
In addition to the problems of overcrowding, litter is becoming a huge problem in RIDC park. One piece of litter can be the difference between life and death for wildlife. Recently, a seagull whose neck was wrapped
with fishing line was found dead in the water at Southside Riverfront Park. This animal choked to death due to the negligence of those littering in the area.
Voices for Animals has investigated this and several other areas and has discovered that litter of this type is often found at many fishing holes. Major sources of litter stem from, but are
not limited to: cigarette butts, fast food waste, chewing gum, plastic bags, and fishing line.
Littering does far more than make an area look messy – it can cause unnecessary deaths in nature. Wild animals have suffered and died simply due to the gross negligence of campers, fishers, joggers, etc. Death and illness are caused by the entanglement, ingestion, and toxicity of this litter. Please be sure to do yourself, nature, animals, and aesthetics a helping hand and properly dispose of all trash and waste properly!
To find out more information about VFA or their Wildlife Awareness Day, go to http://www.vfa-online.org, email VoicesForAnimals@gmail.com, or call 1-877-321-4VFA.
