Don’t trash your Christmas leftovers: It’s gourmet cuisine at this NC animal rescue
A wildlife rescue group in North Carolina has a use for all those holiday leftovers no one wants — feeding the resident “hangry” opossums, crows, jays and seagulls.
Skywatch Bird Rescue is accepting bags of scrap food to help feed all the “omnivores and scavenger-type animals” currently in its care, according to a post-Christmas Facebook post on Thursday.
“Just toss all your scraps in a bag and drop off when convenient. Meat or produce, cooked or raw,” the post states.
The rescue group in Castle Hayne — roughly 11 miles north of Wilmington — takes in injured and orphaned birds and relies entirely on donations, according to the Facebook page.
Its volunteers are nothing if not dedicated: Skywatch said it accepts all foods and will sort through the items themselves for things that can’t be given to the animals.
“This isn’t just for the holidays, you can do this year round!” the rescue group said. “Save your kitchen scraps and leftovers, freeze them and keep adding to the bag ‘till you have enough you want to drop off.”
According to the 2016 legal guide “Leftovers for Livestock” written by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Group and the Food Recovery Project at the University of Arkansas, the U.S. wastes 160 billion pounds of food yearly.
The report cites Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for food recovery — the third tier of which is diverting food scraps for animal feed.
“Farmers have been doing this for centuries,” the EPA says. “With proper and safe handling, anyone can donate food scraps to animals. Food scraps for animals can save farmers and companies money. It is often cheaper to feed animals food scraps rather than having them hauled to a landfill.”
The practice has declined in recent decades, according to the guide. But an increasing awareness “about the environmental and economic problems associated with food waste” is reportedly helping to reinvigorate it.
Regulations at the state and federal level help dictate the kinds of animals that are fed scraps and what can be used.
“The federal regulations function as a floor, and most state regulations go beyond them,” according to the guide. “State regulations take many different forms and vary widely.”
But they largely concern just swine.
In North Carolina, for example, pigs can only be fed heat-treated animal-derived waste — which helps kill disease causing bacteria — by a licensed facility, according to the guide. Individuals can also give swine their own household garbage without the heat treatment.
Possums and birds were not included in the guide.
