BOOKS: Wild Neighbors: The Humane Approach to Living with Wildlife

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Wild Neighbors
The Humane Approach to Living with Wildlife
Humane Society of the U.S.
Edited by John Hadidian, Guy R. Hodge, and John W. Grandy
Fulcrum Publishing (350 Indiana St., Suite 350, Golden, CO 80401-5093), 1997.
254 pages, paperback, $16.95.

Some ANIMAL PEOPLE readers
may think we never say anything good about
the Humane Society of the U.S., but these
should not include those who have called
about nuisance wildlife problems. For at least
a decade, we’ve been recommending the
HSUS Pocket Guide To The Humane Control
of Wildlife in Cities and Towns, edited by
Guy Hodge, as the most useful, practical
deed HSUS ever did for hands-on animal rescuers.
Besides being the most thorough yet
succinct manual around on humane response
to a porcupine nubbling a front step, a raccoon
in a chimney, an opossum in a basement,
squirrels in an attic, or deer nibbling a
garden, it was easy to stuff into a pocket and
take out on call.

In 1994 however, Sierra Club
Books published Living With Wildlife, by
Diana Landau and Shelley Stump. A highly
informative 340-page brick, it did not replace
the Pocket Guide, being much less portable
and pragmatic, but it did round out the Pocket
Guide how-to with further background, of
sufficient value that we suggested animal control
personnel should use both.
Produced in a popular format,
Living With Wildlife also demonstrated mass
market interest in nuisance wildlife how-to.
Thus the Pocket Guide w a s
revamped into Wild Neighbors, with a glossy
bookstore-friendly cover, at more than four
times the old cover price. It can’t be jammed
into a pocket any more. On the other hand, it
has been expanded, is as practical as ever,
offers more useful diagrams and capsule
explanations, and by reaching the general
public will prevent many of the situations
from evolving to which rescuers are typically
called too late. In addition, it’s easier to fax
a page from, when someone calls to demand
instant help. Wild Neighbors should accordingly
forestall a great deal of mayhem.