Working with mycophobes

[urbpan]

I work with caged animals on a wildlife sanctuary. The exhibit cages (mostly birds of prey) are outside, in the lovely Northeast mixed deciduous forest (recently made into a lovely postage stamp sheet). Being outside as they are, filled with dead wood "furniture" and with floors of dirt, they occasionally grow mushrooms. I like mushrooms, just because they're beautiful, and normal parts of the ecosystem, and I value them in the exhibits as free naturalistic decoration.

I found out yesterday, that my two coworkers routinely remove mushrooms when they find them in the cages. One agreed with me about their value as scenery, and said that she only removed them from non-exhibit cages (like the one's growing in the gravel-floored screech owl cage above). Her reason for removing them is that she is allergic to molds and she figured more spores (of any kind) means more misery for her. This has logic to it (flawed) at least. [the flaw: molds and mushrooms are both fungi, but they are very different organisms. The analogy I keep thinking of is that it's like being allergic to shellfish, and therefore avoiding all meat entirely--for that matter, being allergic to strawberries and not eating any fruit at all. Perhaps vyomamistake the mushrooms for the white mice we feed them and be poisoned. This is so dumbfounding to me, that I was left with no response. Supposing that an animal with good vision somehow mistook a mushroom for a mouse, and attacked it, wouldn't the non-mouselike texture prevent it from proceeding? Supposing it bit into the mushroom, wouldn't the non-mouselike taste prevent it from consuming it? Can the irrational fear of mushrooms be conquered in our time? Can we at least get over it at a WILDLIFE SANCTUARY?

Comments

You mean the crazy ladies?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I don't think either of these people would ever eat anything that they were aware grew outside. Yucky.

Re: You mean the crazy ladies?

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Lol. Not just outside - on poop. Or dead things.

p.s. About 8/21. My dad will be getting into Logan at 4 so me'n Bec'll leave around 3 and meet him at the airport. Lil' bitch'll just be crated from 3-6 and that should be okay.