:clap: I'm with you Dave! :biggrin:

I love the pic but I agree it's a little scary too!

You do not really want to leave food out for the animals. . .sooner or later. . .somebody is gonna get hurt. It's usually the animal.

Seems like to me, and I think this totally sucks, that the less animals have to do with us, humans, the better off and safer they remain.

While on the other hand, the more we spend time with and learn from animals, the better humans we become.

Wish things were different in this regard. . .

Oh my--yes, I would remove the feeder!

My parents are in NJ and they were having bear problems because of the bird feeder too. They had to stop feeding the birds, although the bears still pass through from time to time, as their property borders a state forest.

As a matter of fact, this summer when I was up visiting them, I was helping them plant some water lilies in their pond. I heard a creek behind me and turned around only to come very close to mama bear and her three cubs!!!!:_( Scared is a mild term for what I was.

I just went back to the deck and watched and she eventually wandered off with the cubs. They were adorable I must say, but thank god she didn't feel I was a threat. They are getting too used to humans.

Gwen, you are correct!

Our neighborhood is sort of a penninsula into Pike's National Forest so we have lots of animals moving through our yard. . .ur, their yard.

Bears, mountain lions, foxes, raccoons, bobcats, black squirrels with tall tufted ears, deer in the dozens, coyotes and bunnies.

And every once in a while you'll hear about a bear busting into someone's kitchen through a screen door or a bear opening an unlocked sliding glass door. . .they can smell the grape jelly in the cabinet, the trash under the sink. . .somebody gets surprised, gets slashed or gets shot.

Or I'll see a fox trotting through the yard with a big smile wrapped around an enormous hoggie roll bouncing around in their mouth. LOL

The biggest problem is that we're in the way of their food search, so when they find delicious things to eat, they associate us with the food. ..which they teach to each other and never forget. . that's about the time our relationship gets too close for either's safety.

But I soooo understand the desire to help them out. . .it's very nearly irresistable. But it's not the right way to help them. I don't like it but I truly believe this.

I agree, Gwen .. there have been cases of raccoons having rabies here on Long Island but there are far and few around me here .. we get the squirrels and song birds and occasional opossum. My sis feeds feral cats in her backyard and has had visits from raccoons and possum during the night .. now she only leaves the food out in the mornings. :)

This feeder is in a wooded area and not near any houses or towns ect. The land is owned by a paper company and leased to a deer hunting club.

There is no danger of the bear coming to houses looking for food and there are many such feeders in this hunting acreage.

So there's nothing to worry about with this particular one.

Hi Debs! It sounds like I live in an area similar to yours! Even though I live in a residential area of my town close to a main road there still places that people hunt at less than a mile from me. And they definately bait! Everyone that I know that hunts has at one time or another seen a bear out near a bait pile. I guess it's a little scary to know that bears are so close but I have never heard of anything bad happening around here. I think there are so many delicious piles of sugarbeets and carrots out there that they never bother with people (around here at least!). :biggrin:

My husband had some mountain lions stalking him and a friend once while hunting...he said it was pretty spooky....now we have one of em hanging in our living room...lol. I'll post a picture if any one requests me to....I guess if one was going to eat me for dinner to I would have to do the same....but I wouldn't purposely hunt for one like some people do....all kitties are just way to cute!

Hi Casey,
I live in Wolf Bayou, Arkansas. The sign doesn't even have the population listed, if that tells ya anything! :nod:

The only other house I can see is ours, too! It was my husband's grandparents house. We fixed it up as a rental but my husband's maternal grandmother wound up living there.

We have a cattle farm and grow Bermuda hay for our cattle and also sell it commercially when a drought doesn't dry it all up.

We drive 30 minutes one way just to go to town and then the only place to shop is a small Wal*Mart. Little Rock is 100 miles away!

Greers Ferry Lake is only about 15 miles from us, so there is lots of traffic through here.

But mostly it's just good ole country folk that hunt because they need and want the food.

I personally, would rather starve than kill anything. I love animals, all animals, but of course, especially cats! :biggrin:

Can you imagine these people's faces when they see my greenhouse (the only one in the county that I know of) and then find out I grow orchids!!! :scratchhead:

When my husband built it for me a couple years ago, the drug copters kept checking it out! :evil: Ain't life grand!