Pigeons and kittens

[conuly]

Often, I hear people talking about how we need to get our cats fixed because kittens die young or are abandoned to overcrowded shelters, like a kitten-genocide. We need to keep the kittens and cats indoors because they get run over by cars, and die of disease. We need, even, to save feral cats who BY DEFINITION are very much wild animals.

This is all true. I have no argument with any of that.

Today, I fed the pigeons in the ferry. They crowded around the food like... well, like kittens. And some were plump and healthy looking, and some were scrawny and dirty. No doubt pigeons die from poor nutrition and cars as often as cats do. Cats kill pigeons, even, or they can. And no doubt baby pigeons die as quickly as kittens. Certainly *I've* never seen any young pigeons.

Pigeons, like cats, are smart and individual animals. But nobody goes out of their way to mount pigeon rescue efforts, or tries to save the poor homeless pigeons. I'm actually being dead serious here. This is going to trouble me until somebody explains why.

Comments

[conuly]

All animals spread disease, though.

[catsluvdmb.livejournal.com]

Not in the way birds do. Birds are the carrier of more crossover diseases than other animals (though rodents do come in a close second). Both the fecal matter and the feathers can carry the disease over to humans. That's why at my office people with compromised immunities and pregnant women can't work. Meanwhile vets can still treat most animals under these same conditions.

Just thinking about the avian blood smears in zoology class is wigging me out. Yuck!