File this under the "I never thought about that!" category. I consider myself to be a pretty thorough and aware allergy mom. Yet, this story from Wisconsin made me realize I'm not as with it as I thought.
Wisconsin hopes to protect kids from Capitol nutsMADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin is asking people to refrain from feeding squirrels at the state Capitol because they might inadvertently harm a child with a peanut allergy. The state sent a letter Monday to tenants of a downtown Madison office building, asking whomever has been feeding the squirrels on the Capitol lawn to please stop.
Ron Blair, of the Division of State Facilities, writes in the letter that someone has been carpeting the Capitol lawn with peanuts. He says the indiscriminate nut-tossing might pose a risk because thousands of school children tour the building each year and some might have peanut allergies.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 4 percent to 8 percent of children have a food allergy, with peanuts being one of the most common. Some can have a reaction just touching or being near peanuts.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Thankfully the woman who fed the squirrels has agreed to stop.
As you can imagine, this has people up in arms, saying nasty things about those with peanut allergies. But, even with a little negative reaction, it still raises awareness of peanut allergies. And that is definitely a good thing.
I actually lived in Madison when I was in high school. This is a city that is very concerned about its citizens. They think "outside of the box" compared to other towns I have lived in. So, it doesn't surprise me a bit that they are this proactive.
photo courtesy of flickr
5 comments:
That story reminds me of last summer when I found a half eaten Reeces Peanut Butter Cup in my back yard that the squirrels dragged over from the day care behind us!! I felt pretty overwhelmed that even my own backyard could have peanut dangers lurking!!
Michelle
We apparently have squirrel-feeders in our neighborhood, and we often find shells in our backyard.
As best I can tell, an empty shell doesn't pose much risk (especially after it's been out in the rain for a while), but I still go around and pick them all up before we let the little one out to play.
We had a similiar problem as the above...finding peanut shells in our fenced in yard (in a subdivision-no houses behind us at all)...finally figured that maybe squirrels were sitting on the fence eating peanuts. Grrrr!! Just can't get away from those things! k in nc
Here's another thing...look at birdseed. Many have peanuts/peanut shells in them!
My parents neighbor was feeding squirrels shelled peanuts and my Dad asked them to stop, he is our daycare provider.
Who on earth would want to feed a rat with a furry tail? Where we live the squirrels are huge and not afraid of people.
Emily
Post a Comment