Wildlife ordinance infringes on property rights | Letter

Published 1:30 am Monday, June 1, 2026

Regarding the headline: “San Juan County joins a statewide push to stop wildlife feeding — One sign at a time,” for me, this will be a fight of rights as a landowner based on what I can and cannot do on my own property.

Why not curb the county’s construction (of all kinds), construction that pushes wildlife further and further out of their natural habitats?

As well, the assumption that I am ignorant of the “rules” is laughable. I know these “rules.” And unless you want to pay my property taxes, I will not abide by some manufactured constraint that tells me what I can and cannot do on my property.

You have already tried to kill off rabbits, fox, and raccoons with poisons and other wildlife deterrents. How did that work? It was an epic failure.

Your ridiculous notion that we are causing animals harm by feeding them falls flat when you don’t curb construction. Do you prefer they all die off from starvation because of being pushed out of their natural spaces? It seems that’s what you want.

But the REAL question is this: how are you going to control people? I will take my rights as a landowner as high up the courts as possible. I will get every animal rights organization involved. I will take this story and blast it as far and loud as I can to make sure people see the inequity of your rules.

This will be fun. It will give me a reason to live.

Susan Wingate

San Juan Island