Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
Pigeons, People & Perceptions
by Mickey Z. New York City Councilman Simcha Felder is sick and tired of some Big Apple residents "doing whatever they do all over the city without anyone trying to stop it."
Is he talking about trigger-happy cops, double parked cab drivers, omnipresent terror suspects, loud cell phone users, or maybe corporate lawyers?
Nope. Felder has his legislative eye on Columba livia, a.k.a. Rock Pigeon (The bird formerly known as Rock Dove).
According to BirdWeb.com, the Rock Pigeon is "originally
from Europe, Northern Africa, and India" but was "introduced into North
America in the 1600s." Since then, of course, "numbers have increased
significantly as more and more of our country is urbanized."
To
combat the seemingly urgent problem of urbanized pigeon droppings, the
intrepid Councilman Felder plans to introduce legislation banning the
feeding of Columba livia. To defy this ban would be to risk a $1,000
fine. (Interestingly, the Rock Pigeon is despised while conversely its
all-white cousins-the Dove-remain a beloved symbol of peace. Could this
be a case of avian racism?)
Mayor
Michael Bloomberg hasn't yet endorsed the ban but did opine: "We do
have a lot of pigeons and they do tend to foul a lot of our areas."
Just
for the hell of it, let's replace the word "pigeons" with the word
"corporations" in Bloomberg's statement. Better fit, huh? How about if
we just insert "humans"?
For some, the feral pigeon could be
viewed as a nuisance. But in all the thousands of years Columba livia
have dwelled on this planet, did any of them ever feel the need to
invent, say, nuclear weapons?
No
Rock Dove created pesticides, napalm, Agent Orange, or the internal
combustion engine; you can't blame cigarettes, greenhouse gases,
hydroelectric dams, waterboarding, or mercury-laced vaccinations on a
pigeon; and rest assured no non-human conjured up zoos, animal
experimentation, factory farming, or the rodeo.
Also in the
news is James M. Stevenson, founder of the Galveston Ornithological
Society. Stevenson is currently on trial in Texas, charged with fatally
shooting a cat that he said was "stalking endangered shorebirds." In
his own defense, the bird-watching enthusiast said: "This is about wild
species disappearing from your planet. I did what I had to do."
Apparently, that jury will hear no theories as to why so many wild species are disappearing from our planet.
Maybe Councilman Felder can blame that on the Rock Pigeon, too.
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net
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