The ‘Sky Rats’ We Once Loved
In defence of the pigeon
If you could be any animal, what would you be? A dog? A lion? A lumpsucker? (A real fish, part of the Cyclopterus family). Well, too bad; your days of being a lumpsucker shall never be because you are now a pigeon. Poof! You are now a small bird that most likely used to live in caves or on hillsides, the first bird (the rock dove) domesticated by humans 5,000 to 10,000 years ago in Ancient Mesopotamia.
If you managed to avoid the dinner table, as a pigeon you would be trained to send messages over hundreds of miles due to your excellent homing skills. Pre-revolutionary French nobles built elaborate cages for you. Genghis Khan trained you to create cross-continental messaging networks, and 32 of you and your pigeon cousins won the Dickin medal from 1943 to 1949 for your service in World War II. You were loved and cared for, esteemed and honoured.
Now? Now, my dear pigeon, you live in cemented trees decorated with metal spikes. Whilst this is, in theory, the perfect human-made environment for you, mimicking the caves and mountains you once lived in, the built-in hostile architecture causes your poor, spindly feet to be trapped! Widespread amputation for so many of your pigeon brethren.
Being an abandoned creature, you decide to try and make your own living. You decide to build a nest. Humans never taught you how to make one. It doesn’t look too hard, though. Look at your work! You have successfully gathered…a wrapper, a twig, and some green tissues you fished out of a bin. Well done! Sufficient for your little squabs! Now to feed them…. You wander the streets, scrambling and scrounging around for crumbs, unlike the seagull who will just steal them. What a life!
In the 1950s, you were abandoned by your human caretakers, and a hate campaign steadily began to grow. The popular term “sky rat” originated in New York when a Parks Commissioner called you “rats with wings”, and the term quickly caught on as an outbreak of meningitis caused widespread panic between 1961 and 1966, with the blame unfortunately put on you pigeons.
In a recent BBC article, it was revealed that 2,000 pigeons have been routinely shot at night with rifles at train stations across the UK, with Network Rail reported to have had “600 pigeons killed across Bristol Temple Meads, London Euston and Edinburgh Waverley stations.” This inhumane practice is being used to control the number of pigeons, as train stations are a favoured roosting place. Other deterrents, “including spikes and vapour-releasing gel pods,” have been used, or if all else fails, they kill you humanely by aiming for your head.
Luckily, as of December, Northern Railways have “stopped carrying out culls at stations” so there is some progress, with South Western Railway resorting to “egg removal”. However, I’m not sure how ethical this is either.
Here in the UK, my lovely grey bird, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 1981, you were labelled as a pest, which is an animal that can spread diseases to humans. Now that you have lived through a few centuries of being a pigeon, don’t you think they deserve our respect? Imagine if in 100 years we abandoned all dogs and left them to their own devices? I am tired of defending these birds against this completely unjust reputation. They are seen as unclean because they live amongst our uncleanliness, our rubbish, and it is our inability to create safer environments that is the problem. They deserve love. So maybe, don’t chase them when you see them. Don’t call them “sky rats”. They are unique individuals with incredible talents.
Image from Artvee
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