Rats with Wings
Taking a moment to think about the animals we don’t think about.
“Don’t feed the pigeons.” You see this sign often, but why should we not feed the pigeons? Because they will hang around? Why don’t we want to be surrounded by pigeons? If there were puppies around everyone would feed the puppies and want to be surrounded by puppies, but what is it about pigeons that we just don’t like? Why do people call them the “rats of the sky”? Why do we look at them like they don’t belong? It’s 2019 guys, everyone belongs!
One reason you might not like them is a little graphic, but let’s just hop right into it and get right to the dirty stuff. They poop… a lot… everywhere. But is that a reason to hate them? Every animals poops. Every animal poops a lot. WE even poop a lot! Well at least I hope you do, if not go to CVS and get yourself some laxatives. Pooping is great. We literally pick up our dogs poop and clean out the crap from our cats liter boxes, so why can’t we deal with some bird shit? I wouldn’t say that “they poop a lot and everywhere” is a valid reason to hate them. Sure, it sucks when a pigeon poops on you or your car, but hey, it is said to be good luck! What other animals shit is known for good luck? Shouldn’t we want to keep these lucky poop animals around instead of shooing them away?
Okay, so now that we resolved the issue of not liking pigeons because they poop, maybe we don’t like pigeons because they are “dirty” and carry diseases. That would be a valid reason to not want to be around them, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “can not confirm people getting sick from casual interactions with the birds because people and pigeons don’t interact in ways that the birds could make us sick.” Sure they carry diseases, but your ex boyfriend probably does too and you still hit him up.
To be honest, pigeons are actually really cool! They are so cool that they might even be the first ever domesticated bird. Apparently they are also pretty smart, despite the saying, “you have a pigeon brain.” They can find their way back to the nest from 1300 miles away, a study shows that they actually understand space and time, and another study shows that they can actually build a vocabulary and distinguish written words. Pigeons have even saved thousands of human lives! During World War I and World War II, pigeons carried messages that saved people’s lives. Shouldn’t we thank them by throwing them a fry every once in a while? Instead we call them rats with wings (rude.) When is the last time a rat saved a persons life?? Well besides all the rats used for medical break throughs to save lives… Okay, so maybe they are more similar to rats than I thought, but still! It’s just rude.
For all these reasons, I think that we should really give pigeons another chance. Look at them with more compassion, thank them for their service in World War I and World War II, feed them your fries (I promise your ass will thank you later.) Don’t be a negative Nancy when you see a rat with wings, show it love. We need more love in this world, why not start by loving those around us…the pigeons. But not your ex… he doesn’t deserve love.
