Welcome to Small Bite Sound Bites, a midweek segment of food for thought podcast where I,

your host, Colleen Patrick-Gudrow, share short, succinct, thoughtful responses to typical

questions, myths, and misconceptions related to plant-based eating, veganism, and animal

protection.

You can support this podcast today by going to joyfulvegan.com slash donate.

Have you ever noticed the way people talk about wild animals, especially urban wild

animals, whether they're deer, or raccoons, or squirrels, or skunks, or apossums?

They're pests, they're nuisance, they're pestilence, they're vermin, etc.

I don't want to go on.

I don't want to give you any ideas.

The animals who live among us are part of our communities.

They're residents and contributors.

They're not outsiders or intruders.

Every animal whose space we share, the deer, the squirrels, the bees, the birds, the foxes,

the skunks, the rats, the raccoons, face challenges that threaten their survival every

single day.

Noisy leaf blowers, unleashed dogs, speeding cars, light pollution, habitat loss.

Biological diversity is declining at alarming rates.

And since the underlying cause is easy to identify human behavior, the underlying solutions

are equally apparent.

After a few changes, we can make that will make all the difference.

We can stop planting non-native landscapes.

...