SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) – Animal lovers are being asked to leave wildlife alone.

The California Department of Fish and Game officials say well-meaning people have been scooping up healthy wild animals, especially babies, and delivering them to wildlife rehabilitation facilities. About 500 healthy fawns, for instance, are brought in each year.

Experts say deer, rabbits and other animals often leave their babies alone for up to 12 hours at a time while the parents forage for food.

San Rafael’s Wildcare hospital director Melanie Piazza says animal lovers bring in healthy critters all the time, saying they call it kidnapping. She says leave them alone: people should let the animals’ parents raise them, not humans.