Please don’t feed the vagrants

I find them creepy. Their hands look human.

Don't vote for Democrats. Same thing.

I have railroad tracks in the back of my property. The overgrowth offers many critters a home. There is a colony of cats that I feed and leave water. What the cats do not eat during the day the racoons eat at night. Many a time I have seen them sitting on their back legs shoveling the dry food into their mouths with their front paws which do look and function like human hands. They will meet my eyes and continue to eat watching me the whole time. I found them curious but I have never tried to be their friend. A few years ago I learned the hard way that they will also eat meat if they can catch it. I caught them chasing down some kittens, killing them and eating them. In the morning I only found their tails. Being a cat person it made me very sad and I have never forgiven the racoons.

No. 3: I'm curious. How do you feel about the cats chasing down, killing and eating birds and mice?

Reply 3 and 4; “Nature is red in tooth and claw.”

Back in the 70s, IIRC, I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about raccoons. There can be worm eggs in their scat, which if dried and atomized, can be inhaled. The worms can hatch in your lungs, tunnel their way through your body, eventually reaching your brain, and turning it into Swiss cheese. Be extremely cautious around these useless varmints.

I have noticed a phenomenon in old people. They love to feed animals! My theory is that they feel unconditional love when they do, and that is something they don't get much. I know people who have ruined their property by feeding stray cats or Canadian geese.

Getting a mentally ill person into treatment is very difficult due in large part to all the government regulations.

We've all seen videos where someone finds a baby bird or fawn and of course, being big hearted take it in, feed it and give it a safe place until it's old enough to take care of itself. Then they release it. And a few days later it's at the back door, so they pet it and the animal leaves. A few days later it's back, this time with a few friends, now it's not so sweet. A month later there lawn is covered with birds or deers waiting for a hand-out. This works in humans also.

I can't believe I am saying this, but apparently many of the commenters here seem to believe that Glenn's post had something to do with... raccoons. Or feral cats. Which some think are "cute," or something like that. Allow me to suggest that these people hit themselves smartly on the head with a CLUE BAT! This post had nothing to do with cute widdle waccoons. It was a parable about what happens when one caters to human vermin--it attracts MORE human vermin. And if I may be so bold, one could extrapolate this to treatment of invading migrants who show no respect for American laws, its border or anything other than where they can find their next meal and assorted other goodies courtesy of the taxpayer.

My late FIL used to say when talking about panhandlers and vagrants "When you feed stray dogs, what do you get? More stray dogs." Having lived very close to a VERY Liberal Catholic church that ran a daily lunch kitchen, it was horrible. The shiftless, lazy, criminal, mentally ill and druggies all just squatted there on the sidewalk all day waiting. The nearby train tracks where a literal tent city of probably 100 people+. I am not heartless but THIS is not and has never been the solution. But yes, we hate racoons.. but we are small scale free range meat and egg chicken and duck farmer. I have sent quite a few of them, opossums, and skunks to the Great Beyond with no regrets. You enter my fences, my electric net fencing and you have forfeited your right to exist in my opinion. I gave you lots of chances to turn around. My fixed and vetted adopted feral barn cats however keep the rodents that steal my feed to a minimum. They leave the vermin offenders' corpses for me as peace offerings. The songbird population has suffered exactly zero. My big bay windows has taken out far more birds than my wonderful barn cats. Cats, like dogs, have a job on a farm, a job they have been conditioned to for millennia.