Pigeons have been with us since the homo sapiens, who ate them. They were part of our diet for a very long time. Their origin is the rock dove, which has been bred to adjust it to our lifestyle. They were used In the 5th century BC the first network of pigeon messengers is thought to have been established in Assyria and Persia by Cyrus the Great. In 2000 BC they were carrying messages to warring groups in Mesopotamia. They were used in WWI and WW2 and saved a lot of lives. And only very recently, has the dislike for Pigeons started (around 1940s) and this „dislike“ was cultivated by experts, with some statistics and then the media picked up on it to spread it and make it cultural. Very unjust. They are very intelligent creatures and remember voices.
Through media and movies well, the term „rats of the sky“ was coined and imprinted in our minds. Without really asking why. And then, through imaginitive geography we start to believe that cities should be „nature free“ and pigeons are regarded as „nature“ and therefore we want to banish it – control it. Just like pretty much everything in cities – trees gro where we decide to let them grow etc… Pigeons don’t reallg give a fuck about our wants in that sense and adapt – as they were dragged and bred into our civilisation and are a part of „our“ structuring and altering. Due to – lack of natural nature in our cities there is a lack of food. So, due to their inbred capacity to reproduce like crazy – food resources are scarse and they shouldnt be eating bread (nor any bird) but of course they eat what they find! We wouldn’t act differently. Just like with weed that grows between tiles and inbetweeb concrete – it is natures way of staying and for some reason we seem to have learned to „hate and dislike“ these plants. They are plants that remind us that there is no escape, and I think that is very very important.