That's what I was saying yet they think it's ok for them to kill wild birds.
Because there is no emotional attachment to the pigeon.
I have killed far many more pigeons than my cats ever have. Sometimes by accident in the car, sometimes by air rifle. Just because I kill a pigeon, doesn't mean my loved ones would be happy with me being killed by a predator.
Because there is no emotional attachment to the pigeon.
I have killed far many more pigeons than my cats ever have. Sometimes by accident in the car, sometimes by air rifle. Just because I kill a pigeon, doesn't mean my loved ones would be happy with me being killed by a predator.
Your argument is nonsensical.
I shoot 3 or 4 pigeons a week sometimes, my broccoli and Brussels sprouts are for us people, not vermin from the skies. Pigeons are basically sky rats, got no time for them. My cats catch the odd one, I reward them for it, just as I do when they catch rats. We have a stick by the back door for dispatching the almost dead.
I shoot 3 or 4 pigeons a week sometimes, my broccoli and Brussels sprouts are for us people, not vermin from the skies. Pigeons are basically sky rats, got no time for them. My cats catch the odd one, I reward them for it, just as I do when they catch rats. We have a stick by the back door for dispatching the almost dead.
The pigeon will go well with your veg. Home grown veg and pigeon would be a very environmentally conscious meal.
Because there is no emotional attachment to the pigeon.
I have killed far many more pigeons than my cats ever have. Sometimes by accident in the car, sometimes by air rifle. Just because I kill a pigeon, doesn't mean my loved ones would be happy with me being killed by a predator.
Your argument is nonsensical.
Why are you only referring to pigeons? They are often a pest.
I've used the term wild birds which includes song birds which are missed by many people, they don't need to be pets to have a value.
The thread has unfortunately drifted into the introduction of linx which has been objected to because of the threat to cats and dogs.
I don't think roaming cat owners would be in a position to complain.
Why are you only referring to pigeons? They are often a pest.
I've used the term wild birds which includes song birds which are missed by many people, they don't need to be pets to have a value.
The thread has unfortunately drifted into the introduction of linx which has been objected to because of the threat to cats and dogs.
I don't think roaming cat owners would be in a position to complain.
Because the OP was about a pigeon. Habitat loss, farming methods and lack of food are the reasons for the decline in songbirds, not cats.
I wouldn't complain about lynx, I think that'd be pretty cool. I'd love to go and see a wild lynx.
They might be okay around the Cairngorms or something, but as predators they're a bit bigger than the GBP are used to. But those lynx creatures are grumpy, at least they'll never club together like a pack of wolves.
Good on the OP for having the humanity and compassion to save a living creature from a horrible, painful death.
So it was a pigeon? So what? you might say. Some say the cat attack is merely nature in action and they have a point. Cats are predators and birds are their prey. Nature is red in tooth and claw and I guess that at any time of day, anywhere in the world one animal is slaughtering another because its in their genetic make up to do so.
But (there's always a but, isn't there..?)
We're human beings. We're a highly evolved species that has developed an ethical code and part of that code tells us to respond to the suffering of another creature with compassion... to prevent senseless death where we can.
I think we change the world with random acts of kindness, no matter how small they may be. Little by little, inch by inch, we make ourselves into a better species.
The OP is a decent human being, and that is a good thing to be. If the bird lives and flies away it won't remember her or come back to visit or anything like that. It may even fall victim to another cat the very next day. Who knows. But she did the right thing. She tried to make the world a better place with one random act of kindness.
Good on the OP for having the humanity and compassion to save a living creature from a horrible, painful death.
So it was a pigeon? So what? you might say. Some say the cat attack is merely nature in action and they have a point. Cats are predators and birds are their prey. Nature is red in tooth and claw and I guess that at any time of day, anywhere in the world one animal is slaughtering another because its in their genetic make up to do so.
But (there's always a but, isn't there..?)
We're human beings. We're a highly evolved species that has developed an ethical code and part of that code tells us to respond to the suffering of another creature with compassion... to prevent senseless death where we can.
I think we change the world with random acts of kindness, no matter how small they may be. Little by little, inch by inch, we make ourselves into a better species.
The OP is a decent human being, and that is a good thing to be. If the bird lives and flies away it won't remember her or come back to visit or anything like that. It may even fall victim to another cat the very next day. Who knows. But she did the right thing. She tried to make the world a better place with one random act of kindness.
There's hope for us yet.
This is a lovely post and like the OP I would probably do the same thing. I have three Cats that I adore but I know what evil critters they can be at times. One of them brought me a live Bat a few years ago, getting that out of the house was a challenge to say the least!
Only last summer I was driving down a fairly busy road and there was a Cat acting strangely in the middle of the lane. I quickly pulled over and discovered it was playing with a Frog!! I immediately shoo'ed the Cat away and put the Frog over a wall, hopefully saving the lives of both creatures.
Why are you only referring to pigeons? They are often a pest.
I've used the term wild birds which includes song birds which are missed by many people, they don't need to be pets to have a value.
The thread has unfortunately drifted into the introduction of linx which has been objected to because of the threat to cats and dogs.
I don't think roaming cat owners would be in a position to complain.
Predation by lynxes is hardly likely to be a problem. For one thing, it's just an idea, and they're introducing the wrong Lynx. It should be the smaller, Iberian lynx, which is critically endangered. They eat rabbits, not deer and sheep. And no Lynx is going to make work for itself by hunting potentially dangerous prey like cats and dogs.
But on topic, pigeons are indeed a pest. There are millions too many of them, filthy, disease carrying vermin. Cats catching songbirds is a potential ecological problem, though not thought critical yet. Cats catching pigeons is marvellous.
Good on the OP for having the humanity and compassion to save a living creature from a horrible, painful death.
So it was a pigeon? So what? you might say. Some say the cat attack is merely nature in action and they have a point. Cats are predators and birds are their prey. Nature is red in tooth and claw and I guess that at any time of day, anywhere in the world one animal is slaughtering another because its in their genetic make up to do so.
But (there's always a but, isn't there..?)
We're human beings. We're a highly evolved species that has developed an ethical code and part of that code tells us to respond to the suffering of another creature with compassion... to prevent senseless death where we can.
I think we change the world with random acts of kindness, no matter how small they may be. Little by little, inch by inch, we make ourselves into a better species.
The OP is a decent human being, and that is a good thing to be. If the bird lives and flies away it won't remember her or come back to visit or anything like that. It may even fall victim to another cat the very next day. Who knows. But she did the right thing. She tried to make the world a better place with one random act of kindness.
There's hope for us yet.
Wow, thank you so much for this very lovely post, it's quite overwhelming, but thank you.
I herd cooing early morning, but there are a lot of birds in this area as it's on top of the forest.
So when I got up I looked in on him and he was moving around his box confidently and making those little noises they make when sitting, he was also taking some of the seed ball we left in last night and seemed very well.
So I took my dog out for a walk and my Grandmother was left in the house, in that time the RSPCA had arrived and looked him over, luckily as we was coming back she was just leaving in the van, so I went over to her and she said he looks as if he will be fine now, she said it looks quite young, but nothing seems to be the matter and he made a bit of a fuss when she tried to put him into the transport cage.
So hopefully he will be free in a few days now.
I didn't get to say goodbye to him though, but at least I did all I could for him and I'm glad I did and didn't let the cats get him.
Glad he's doing well, OP. Hopefully he'll make a full recovery and get back to doing the things that pigeons do (while hopefully avoiding the cats!).
My Nan rescued a crow many years ago, I think she'd found it injured while walking her dog. She took it home and kept it in her bathroom for several weeks, while it recovered. Her bathroom was tiny and I think I was about 9 or 10 at the time, so using the bathroom was terrifying with this big crow flapping about in there! It went on to make a full recovery and it used to come back and see her for a few weeks after she released it. Was quite sweet really. Though in hindsight it was probably just hoping for an easy meal!
This town is usually wall-to-wall with seagulls but whenever it's windy or raining or snowing they always vanish completely.
I have a sneaky feeling that they've all clubbed together, got on the internet and rented a flat between them so they've got somewhere to hang-out when the weather's bad so they can watch TV and order pizza.
Boy is the landlord going to have some cleaning to do when he finds out!
Haha I think we have a community of them living on my roof, they probably party in the loft space
We have the same problem here in Bath, seagulls are the cause of every roof leak I have had (and I've had a few, at least one every year) as they eat away at the flat part of my roof (top floor flat) and nest in the gully on the roof, as well as the gutters. They also swarm and keep us awake in the early hours of the morning, generally around 4am, and attack my daughter regularly for some reason (as well as the other kids around here), usually when the baby gulls fall off the roof and can't fly yet, they dive-bomb people to protect the baby.
However, much as I hate these critters, I have had many opportunities to run one or more over but cannot bring myself to hurt another living creature. I've shoo'd and tsk'd at the babies to try and move them to safer areas away from cats, I've stopped my car (safely) to avoid running over grown or baby gulls, I just cannot kill one of them much as I hate them.
There are also a couple of pigeons that like to come onto my outside sill - and I've a new-found appreciation of pigeons since my hatred of gulls, who bully the pigeons mercilessly - and occasionally these pigeons step in through the window onto my indoor sill. I worry that they will end up flying around the room scaring themselves, and me, to death, so I keep an eye on the window. One did get caught inside my bedroom, behind my wooden blind, and I could hear it walking along (it woke me up) the sill towards the end of the blind, when it would then be in the room. I jumped out of bed (a minor miracle for me ) and held the blind tight against the window frame, so that the bird had nowhere to go but back to the open window and out.
Not sure what I would do if they made it into the room I don't want either of us getting hurt.
You can hate these creatures with a passion, but deliberately causing their death, or hurting them, is something I realise I cannot do!
The bloody cats over the back caught hold of a pigeon and I walked past the window and caught them just in time, I hosed them away and the pigeon hopped away and hid.
They kept coming back but I got rid of them and managed to pick the pigeon up and put him in a box.
I have called the local wildlife society, but they said I have to take him in tomorrow and I do not drive.
I've also called the RSPCA and they have passed it on to the local officer and maybe someone will come tonight or maybe tomorrow.
The pigeon, bless him, seemed mostly in shock, he couldn't take off, but his wing doesn't look broken at all, especially now.
I have him in a box with some paper and a towel, I have a dog who while he is really placid with wildlife, I don't want him interfering with the bird, so for now he is in the porch.
Does anyone have any advice? I have no idea what to do and know little about birds.
I need to get the cats away from the garden though as it would have been a dead and bloodied bird had I not walked past the window.
Neck it, its free food, pigeon tastes quite nice in a pie, and no i'm not taking the pi$$.
That's what I was saying yet they think it's ok for them to kill wild birds.
My cats wear collar bells, but if they all did what happens about the million of vermin they kill annually? Where does this type of thinking end? Nature is cruel, end of story. Is it ok for hunting dogs to be used by man to follow their natural instincts to hunt and kill, for food and control of the natural world? Is it ok for man to shoot birds, not really essential for food? Are you a vegetarian or does someone else do your killing for inessential food?
I herd cooing early morning, but there are a lot of birds in this area as it's on top of the forest.
So when I got up I looked in on him and he was moving around his box confidently and making those little noises they make when sitting, he was also taking some of the seed ball we left in last night and seemed very well.
So I took my dog out for a walk and my Grandmother was left in the house, in that time the RSPCA had arrived and looked him over, luckily as we was coming back she was just leaving in the van, so I went over to her and she said he looks as if he will be fine now, she said it looks quite young, but nothing seems to be the matter and he made a bit of a fuss when she tried to put him into the transport cage.
So hopefully he will be free in a few days now.
I didn't get to say goodbye to him though, but at least I did all I could for him and I'm glad I did and didn't let the cats get him.
Glad he's doing well, OP. Hopefully he'll make a full recovery and get back to doing the things that pigeons do (while hopefully avoiding the cats!).
My Nan rescued a crow many years ago, I think she'd found it injured while walking her dog. She took it home and kept it in her bathroom for several weeks, while it recovered. Her bathroom was tiny and I think I was about 9 or 10 at the time, so using the bathroom was terrifying with this big crow flapping about in there! It went on to make a full recovery and it used to come back and see her for a few weeks after she released it. Was quite sweet really. Though in hindsight it was probably just hoping for an easy meal!
Thank you.
There are so many birds and wildlife around here (deer too!), but there are so many cats, the man over the back has them into the twenties at least with letting them all breed with each other so the poor birds get caught sadly.
Wow a cow!!! Oh my god, I couldn't imagine one in the bathroom!!! When I was little we used to have an old disused outside toilet in our garden and I used to dream of housing a cow in there and then let him out into our garden, such sweet things.
There are so many birds and wildlife around here (deer too!), but there are so many cats, the man over the back has them into the twenties at least with letting them all breed with each other so the poor birds get caught sadly.
Wow a cow!!! Oh my god, I couldn't imagine one in the bathroom!!! When I was little we used to have an old disused outside toilet in our garden and I used to dream of housing a cow in there and then let him out into our garden, such sweet things.
That must have been strange yet lovely!
LOL - A crow, not a cow!! :D:D
Good for you for saving the pigeon. I couldn't have stood by and done nothing either.
There are so many birds and wildlife around here (deer too!), but there are so many cats, the man over the back has them into the twenties at least with letting them all breed with each other so the poor birds get caught sadly.
Wow a cow!!! Oh my god, I couldn't imagine one in the bathroom!!! When I was little we used to have an old disused outside toilet in our garden and I used to dream of housing a cow in there and then let him out into our garden, such sweet things.
That must have been strange yet lovely!
Curiously, crows are indeed quite lovely. Smart, potentially friendly, and ecologically vital, we have them instead of vultures. Cows, on the other hand, vastly overrated. Neither gentle nor sweet.
I can't believe people on here are passing up the chance of a free meal.
Lets put it another way, kill it dress it cook it, and give it to the first homeless person you see thats rooting through a bin for food, believe me they'll be thankful of a cooked meal, rather that than rotting food out of a bin.
Good for you for saving the pigeon. I couldn't have stood by and done nothing either.
Oh my god, I am crying with laughter here!!! I'm so tired this morning as we had a lot of cooking yesterday for today and then the bird drama, I've been so tired I just misread it completely, I am crying here!!!
I did think, well it must have been a very small and young cow and it must have been a bungalow as you won't get a cow to climb the stairs!!
I can't believe people on here are passing up the chance of a free meal.
Lets put it another way, kill it dress it cook it, and give it to the first homeless person you see thats rooting through a bin for food, believe me they'll be thankful of a cooked meal, rather that than rotting food out of a bin.
Yes Pigeon is tasty. I can't believe that you think everyone is capable of doing this, even non-vegetarians.. So we have to find other humane means of dealing with the situation.
I'm a coward, an abattoir sorts out the killing of any creatures I choose to eat.
Comments
Because there is no emotional attachment to the pigeon.
I have killed far many more pigeons than my cats ever have. Sometimes by accident in the car, sometimes by air rifle. Just because I kill a pigeon, doesn't mean my loved ones would be happy with me being killed by a predator.
Your argument is nonsensical.
I shoot 3 or 4 pigeons a week sometimes, my broccoli and Brussels sprouts are for us people, not vermin from the skies. Pigeons are basically sky rats, got no time for them. My cats catch the odd one, I reward them for it, just as I do when they catch rats. We have a stick by the back door for dispatching the almost dead.
The pigeon will go well with your veg. Home grown veg and pigeon would be a very environmentally conscious meal.
Why are you only referring to pigeons? They are often a pest.
I've used the term wild birds which includes song birds which are missed by many people, they don't need to be pets to have a value.
The thread has unfortunately drifted into the introduction of linx which has been objected to because of the threat to cats and dogs.
I don't think roaming cat owners would be in a position to complain.
Because the OP was about a pigeon. Habitat loss, farming methods and lack of food are the reasons for the decline in songbirds, not cats.
I wouldn't complain about lynx, I think that'd be pretty cool. I'd love to go and see a wild lynx.
So it was a pigeon? So what? you might say. Some say the cat attack is merely nature in action and they have a point. Cats are predators and birds are their prey. Nature is red in tooth and claw and I guess that at any time of day, anywhere in the world one animal is slaughtering another because its in their genetic make up to do so.
But (there's always a but, isn't there..?)
We're human beings. We're a highly evolved species that has developed an ethical code and part of that code tells us to respond to the suffering of another creature with compassion... to prevent senseless death where we can.
I think we change the world with random acts of kindness, no matter how small they may be. Little by little, inch by inch, we make ourselves into a better species.
The OP is a decent human being, and that is a good thing to be. If the bird lives and flies away it won't remember her or come back to visit or anything like that. It may even fall victim to another cat the very next day. Who knows. But she did the right thing. She tried to make the world a better place with one random act of kindness.
There's hope for us yet.
This is a lovely post and like the OP I would probably do the same thing. I have three Cats that I adore but I know what evil critters they can be at times. One of them brought me a live Bat a few years ago, getting that out of the house was a challenge to say the least!
Only last summer I was driving down a fairly busy road and there was a Cat acting strangely in the middle of the lane. I quickly pulled over and discovered it was playing with a Frog!! I immediately shoo'ed the Cat away and put the Frog over a wall, hopefully saving the lives of both creatures.
Predation by lynxes is hardly likely to be a problem. For one thing, it's just an idea, and they're introducing the wrong Lynx. It should be the smaller, Iberian lynx, which is critically endangered. They eat rabbits, not deer and sheep. And no Lynx is going to make work for itself by hunting potentially dangerous prey like cats and dogs.
But on topic, pigeons are indeed a pest. There are millions too many of them, filthy, disease carrying vermin. Cats catching songbirds is a potential ecological problem, though not thought critical yet. Cats catching pigeons is marvellous.
Wow, thank you so much for this very lovely post, it's quite overwhelming, but thank you.
I herd cooing early morning, but there are a lot of birds in this area as it's on top of the forest.
So when I got up I looked in on him and he was moving around his box confidently and making those little noises they make when sitting, he was also taking some of the seed ball we left in last night and seemed very well.
So I took my dog out for a walk and my Grandmother was left in the house, in that time the RSPCA had arrived and looked him over, luckily as we was coming back she was just leaving in the van, so I went over to her and she said he looks as if he will be fine now, she said it looks quite young, but nothing seems to be the matter and he made a bit of a fuss when she tried to put him into the transport cage.
So hopefully he will be free in a few days now.
I didn't get to say goodbye to him though, but at least I did all I could for him and I'm glad I did and didn't let the cats get him.
The birds I've taken in always end up dying.
My Nan rescued a crow many years ago, I think she'd found it injured while walking her dog. She took it home and kept it in her bathroom for several weeks, while it recovered. Her bathroom was tiny and I think I was about 9 or 10 at the time, so using the bathroom was terrifying with this big crow flapping about in there! It went on to make a full recovery and it used to come back and see her for a few weeks after she released it. Was quite sweet really. Though in hindsight it was probably just hoping for an easy meal!
We have the same problem here in Bath, seagulls are the cause of every roof leak I have had (and I've had a few, at least one every year) as they eat away at the flat part of my roof (top floor flat) and nest in the gully on the roof, as well as the gutters. They also swarm and keep us awake in the early hours of the morning, generally around 4am, and attack my daughter regularly for some reason (as well as the other kids around here), usually when the baby gulls fall off the roof and can't fly yet, they dive-bomb people to protect the baby.
However, much as I hate these critters, I have had many opportunities to run one or more over but cannot bring myself to hurt another living creature. I've shoo'd and tsk'd at the babies to try and move them to safer areas away from cats, I've stopped my car (safely) to avoid running over grown or baby gulls, I just cannot kill one of them much as I hate them.
There are also a couple of pigeons that like to come onto my outside sill - and I've a new-found appreciation of pigeons since my hatred of gulls, who bully the pigeons mercilessly - and occasionally these pigeons step in through the window onto my indoor sill. I worry that they will end up flying around the room scaring themselves, and me, to death, so I keep an eye on the window. One did get caught inside my bedroom, behind my wooden blind, and I could hear it walking along (it woke me up) the sill towards the end of the blind, when it would then be in the room. I jumped out of bed (a minor miracle for me
Not sure what I would do if they made it into the room
You can hate these creatures with a passion, but deliberately causing their death, or hurting them, is something I realise I cannot do!
Neck it, its free food, pigeon tastes quite nice in a pie, and no i'm not taking the pi$$.
My cats wear collar bells, but if they all did what happens about the million of vermin they kill annually? Where does this type of thinking end? Nature is cruel, end of story. Is it ok for hunting dogs to be used by man to follow their natural instincts to hunt and kill, for food and control of the natural world? Is it ok for man to shoot birds, not really essential for food? Are you a vegetarian or does someone else do your killing for inessential food?
That's good news. Well done you!
Thanks.
That's a shame, although I was thinking that this one would be too when I got up.
It was a bit like Schrödinger's cat this morning (ironic really!)
Thank you.
There are so many birds and wildlife around here (deer too!), but there are so many cats, the man over the back has them into the twenties at least with letting them all breed with each other so the poor birds get caught sadly.
Wow a cow!!! Oh my god, I couldn't imagine one in the bathroom!!!
That must have been strange yet lovely!
LOL - A crow, not a cow!!
Good for you for saving the pigeon. I couldn't have stood by and done nothing either.
Curiously, crows are indeed quite lovely. Smart, potentially friendly, and ecologically vital, we have them instead of vultures. Cows, on the other hand, vastly overrated. Neither gentle nor sweet.
Lets put it another way, kill it dress it cook it, and give it to the first homeless person you see thats rooting through a bin for food, believe me they'll be thankful of a cooked meal, rather that than rotting food out of a bin.
Oh my god, I am crying with laughter here!!! I'm so tired this morning as we had a lot of cooking yesterday for today and then the bird drama, I've been so tired I just misread it completely, I am crying here!!!
I did think, well it must have been a very small and young cow and it must have been a bungalow as you won't get a cow to climb the stairs!!
Haha, so funny!
Yes Pigeon is tasty. I can't believe that you think everyone is capable of doing this, even non-vegetarians.. So we have to find other humane means of dealing with the situation.
I'm a coward, an abattoir sorts out the killing of any creatures I choose to eat.