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The hill I will die on: Pigeons are working-class heroes and deserve some respect
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2025
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UK Nature and Environment
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It's always crazy to me when I remember that pigeons are a fully domesticated species that we just... abandoned until they went feral. I don't know any other animal that's happened to. Makes me feel... Sad? Mournful? I don't know. I don't particularly like birds, but I can't help but see pigeons as a symbol of some sort of collective broken contract on humanity's part.
All the wild horses in the US have been brought from Europe.
Dingos in Australia were brought by humans. Camels as well, though thousands of years later. Rabbits, toads, rats...
OK, the rats have not been brought on purpose.
US Horses and Australian camels fit that definition. Maybe dingos if 8000 years of separation counts. But the rest don't. Humans introducing a species someplace they aren't native, even if it's on purpose, isn't the same as a domesticated animal going feral.
Fair point, but dingos aren't wild dogs, they were ere domesticated. Cats fit as well.
Cats are a weird one. Not really domesticated. Not really feral. Something in between. Like a wild animal that made a handshake agreement with humans rather than a formal contract.
If it makes you feel any better, the continued existence and proliferation of the pigeon means that some part of the contract was extended indefinitely.
Unlike the passenger pigeon, which was hunted to extinction over a hundred years ago!
I'd say dogs in mexico and cats in the US. Some people feed them but they live terribly outside getting hit by cars and stuff