When Do Two Wrongs Make A Right?
Let’s get violent and find out.
My country, Nigeria, has to have some kind of record for animal abuse. I told you some of it here —
Birds, however, might have it worse. We have so many one-legged birds and many others that walk on their stumps. The reason for this? Hair salons. So it is like this…
See? Animal abuse.
Birds have their own land mines or hair mines if you are in the mood for a pun.
Recently, I started wondering about Pigeons. Maybe it has something to do with me living in the penthouse (minus the luxury features) and they being part of the bird ecosystem that lives on the roof above me, their constant cooing and perching on my window. Maybe all that has made me start paying more attention to the birds.
Who owns pigeons?
I ask everyone now.
Most people say — no one. Fascinating.
Being from a country where ogwu (charm/juju/black magic) is a big hit for many people, bird sacrifices feature in the cures for everything from headaches to poverty so, birds, including pigeons are caught, bought, and sold for these purposes.
On my walk today, as I approached a junction on the street, I could hear a woman screaming —
Please leave him!
Don’t hit him!
Let him go, please!
There were fewer people on the street that early but apart from the woman, others were looking in the same direction.
This will be good. I said to myself.
You live in my country long enough and you recognize when someone is about to get beat up or is getting beat up.
I walked up closer and saw a bigger man holding a boy who looked to be a teenager. The teenager looked afraid but he was struggling to get out of the grip of the older man. I keep my distance in street fights as they tend to get violent quickly but I slowed my walk because I wanted to see where this was going. It would not hurt to join the older woman in pleading with the bigger man to let the teenager go.
But, I have also seen some smaller men successfully take on bigger adversaries in street fights so…
But the bigger man held a sizeable stick in his right hand while gripping the boy with his left.
So…not a fair fight. I reasoned.
“Let it go, now!” The bigger man commanded.
And that was when I saw what the boy grasped with his hand —
A pigeon.
Oh oh…
“I said, let it go!” The bigger man screamed at the boy. This time, he raised the stick to hit him.
“Release the pigeon na!” The older woman implored the boy.
As the bigger man’s stick came down to hit the boy, he let the pigeon go. Then the man released him.
“Every time, they come here and trap birds. For what? Do you own them?” The big man questioned the boy fiercely.
As I walked on, I noticed something else, the teenage boy had a long black threaded but still thin in his hand. I surmised that he must have used the rope in some way to trap the pigeon.
It wasn’t all careless and nonchalant salons, individuals, and lazy government policing that caused harm to birds. Some people went out of their way to try and ground birds…
I continued on my walk grateful that the boy was stopped and the pigeon, freed. Honestly, while I do not condone violence, but knowing that if the bigger man had not gotten aggressive with the teenager, that bird would by this time be in some pot for some purpose, makes me happy that he was stopped.
Feeling happy despite knowing that the bigger man was ready to get violent…therein lies my dilemma, after all, no one owns these pigeons.
So, who then is in the right here or wrong here — the bigger man whose vested interest in these pigeons comes from a place of care and for them, he was willing to get violent Or, was the teenager in his right —remember, no one owns the birds so, isn’t he free to capture them and do with them as he wished?
