[Doglips]

Crime Spree Stoped...Thank God the police have spent so much $$ and time on this.

Woman faces jail for giving squirrels food
June 26, 2002

BY NANCY A. YOUSSEF
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Ronald Reagan used to feed them on the White House lawn. But in Eastpointe, a woman may face jail today for feeding squirrels at John F. Kennedy Park.

Luminita Marinas, 62, will go before Eastpointe District Judge Martin Smith after city officials charged her with violating her probation two weeks ago by feeding the squirrels.

In February, Smith gave Marinas one year's probation for littering and rat harborage; one of the conditions of her probation was that she would not feed the squirrels. But city officials say they caught her in the act after receiving complaints from residents. Officials also photographed her handiwork: 2-foot piles of peanuts and walnuts, surrounded by the tiny footprints of grateful rats, who scarf up what the squirrels leave behind.

Marinas has been feeding squirrels for the last 10 years, raising the ire of neighbors, who despise the rodents and the jagged walnut shells left behind.

"Everybody else is feeding them. Why am I on probation?" Marinas counters. "I shouldn't be punished for loving animals."

In March, Marinas approached Eastpointe Mayor Frank Accavitti Jr. and told him at least three times that she would "kill herself" if she could not feed squirrels, according to a police report. She confirms the report, but says she isn't ready to die.

City code enforcers said she has left bucket-size amounts of nuts in front of her home, her card shop on 9 Mile and at the park.

"It's not that act, it's the excess that is causing the public problem," said Gary Young, director of the city's building safety. "You can see the pile of them as you drive by the park in your car."

Accavitti said some residents walk through the park barefoot, and the nut shells "can be as sharp as glass."

"We're not chasing after sweet little old ladies who feed the squirrels," he added. "There are lots of people who feed the squirrels in our community. They just do it in much smaller quantities."

Marinas' decision to feed the squirrels has caused debate among City Council members about how many nuts a resident can feed the squirrels before it becomes a nuisance. City officials pointed to a case when a small dog was attacked by park squirrels and had to be euthanatized. The council decided in 1998 that if the feeding drew rats, someone could be charged with rat harborage, a misdemeanor carrying up to a $5,000 fine and 90 days in jail.

Among Marinas' supporters are her attorney, Matt Savich, and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, whose representatives will attend her hearing today.

"I fled a Communist country and I came to here for freedom and justice," said Marinas, who immigrated to the United States from Romania in 1971. "And I got this."

During his time in Washington, Reagan would bring walnuts from Camp David and feed them to squirrels on the White House lawn. He did this so often that he began attracting a crowd of squirrels. His successor, George Bush, was less enthusiastic. He sent his dog, Millie, to address the overpopulation of squirrels Reagan's habit had created.




Contact NANCY A. YOUSSEF at 586-469-8087.

[NRAJOE]

You have GOT to be kidding me!?

[Klaus]

The silly woman is trying to compare being arrested TWICE for her crimes of littering and causing the rat population to grow to living in a communist country? She should be slapped, then sent to a mental institute, IMHO.

[Shaun]

First they are calling dogs racists and now we are arresting old ladies for feeding squirrels whats next ? they are going to arrest bear for sheting in the woods

[Full MeTal Jack]

She needs to subpoena Ronald Reagan. If found guilty, burn her at the stake like the old world. Jurors are sometime a bunch of sheep. They are told to judge based on the law. Danm, never tell them that they are also in judgement of the law. Tell that to some people and see the reaction on their faces. We need more guns, pellet guns. Heck as a 10 year old I killed more than my share of rats and nuisence cats.

[Klaus]

She was arrested for deliberately feeding RATS. If you read the article, she kept putting out huge piles of nuts after being repeatedly warned that the rats eat all the leftover nuts and to either stop or put out fewer nuts. It says the piles of nuts were 2 FEET high. There is clearly something wrong with her.

[Big Dog]

I give my squirrels sunflower seeds, keeps 'em fat and sassy. A lot less trash left behind, too. Seriously, I can understand her wanting to feed the squirrels, but anything can be done to excess. She could put smaller amounts of nuts at many more locations. Big mistake is getting those PETA-freaks involved. As for the rats, they used to offer a bounty on 'em in the good old days. Many a youngster earned his soda money bagging rats with his bb-gun. Simpler times.

[NRAJOE]

Yep, I used to get paid to shoot them when I was a kid at the grain mill on the Maumee river...fun times!

[alan c.]

Personally-- I think she is a nut case.

[Rave]

What bothers me is this terrorist business and this anti-religious stuff going on at the same time,pretty soon we will have to watch out for the thought police nabbing you for thinking of God and the charge may be aided by any religious material material on your person or in your vehicle like a cross just like drug paraphanalia,might even get to the point where they throw you injail and confiscate your property.

[Oxford]

Ok so now the city government is telling us not to feed squirrels. The federal government is telling us not to shoot birds. The state government is telling us not to shoot deer out of season or catch the wrong size fish.

Is it the government's responsibility to oversee these actions? Where does that right get addressed in our constitution?

This is just one more regulation to control our lives by the government. I'm definittely not in favor of more regulation.

Oxford

[Klaus]

No, the city government said not to feed RATS. Squirrels are OK.

[Dale]

As far as I am concerned squirrels are one step up from the rats on the evolutionary ladder. Or is it the other way around? Heck, sometimes rats display more intelligence. Anyway.....

They are just as destructive (in other ways, of course) and they carry similar diseases.

We have a variety here that is so prolific you can shoot ten today and tick off their whole family because 20 more will be here tomarrow.

I can't keep vegetation on my trees 'cause the idiots eat the leaves, bark....berries. I'm getting fed up with them. The ones the dog has hauled in are covered with ticks and fleas. No wonder I have to bathe her so often.

That lady must not know what she is doing is not only causing the squirrels to become dependant on man for food and thereby endangering their foraging ability but she is also encouraging the squirrels to develop a social contact with humans. Dang, a squirrel bite hurts and to think of the possibility of rabies...mmmm.

Did you notice that nowhere did I mention religion? 'Good boy"!

[alan c.]

I think the city is lumping both critters in the same category--rodents.

[Klaus]

No, the article Squirrel feeding is permitted, but this woman dumps huge mounds of nuts and the rats eat most of them.