Small children chasing pigeons in the park - harmless or mean?

I stop my Grandsons from chasing wildlife. I know it can be fun for them but I don't think it's fun for whatever creature they are chasing.

I wouldn’t allow my grandchild to chase pigeons. I get very annoyed when I see other children doing it.
We should teach our children/grandchild to respect all animals and birds. They ate not playthings!!

Bluecat

I think it's stretching things a bit to assume that a 2 year old chasing pigeons is likely to grow up to chase or mistreat birds and other wildlife. Think of the other crazy things that 2 year olds do - put random objects in their mouths, draw on the walls, have a tantrum in the supermarket... Do you honestly think they'll keep doing those things when they're older? So why shouldn't they grow out of chasing anything that moves, including pigeons?

I agree.
Highly unlikely they’d continue, especially since as they get older they’d understand your explanation of why not.

I’d probably distract him/her at that age, especially if other children are there and doing it too.
Interesting reading the confusing answers on here, about when and where it is OK to chase e.g. OK if it’s inconveniencing us, not OK under other circumstances.

Allira

Oh dear, every time I see this thread I hear Tom Lehrer singing:

"Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" 🎵🎶🎵🎶🎵

Before anyone shouts at me, Tom Lehrer was a satirist.

^Tom Lehrer's famous song "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park" was inspired by the City of Boston doing exactly that. The city spread strychnine-laced corn in its public parks to reduce the pigeon population^

I was going to link to that on YouTube, but given the tone of some of the posts thought better of it

From some of the responses on here, you'd think any toddler who chases a pigeon is going to grow up to become a serial killer.
No, it's not something I would encourage, and I would either try to distract them or explain why it's not nice to do that - but have you tried reasoning with a two-year-old?

I'm in the "I think it's wrong" camp. I've been s#£t a few times by pigeons and a seagull but would still not allow a child to torment a bird or any other animal. Also a strong believer in dogs being on leads in public places. Protection for humans, wildlife and other dog owners, especially nervous dogs. I once ran up a woman waving my arms and shouting at her and she screamed at me to stop as she was "scared" . So I pointed out that my anxious dog was "scared" of her boisterous yapping cockerpoo that had zero rerecallSeemed to hit home

About time everyone stopped chasing & killing any wild animal that they want to simply because they do not like them! We have driven so many animals away from their natural territory, taken their access to their food that they have no choice but to scavenge where they can! I do not expect anyone to agree with me but this is the way my parents brought me up & at my age I will not change now!

All these two year olds galloping around the parks on their trusty steeds, with their hounds, terrifying the life out of peaceful pigeons.

It's truly shocking.

^but would still not allow a child to torment a bird^torment is a very strong word.

Pulling its feathers out one by one? Poking its eyes out? Tying it in a bag and throwing it in the pond in the park?

Believe me, I've seen nasty older boys and men tormenting animals and tried to stop them.

Running round in the park is what toddlers do. The pigeons have to share the space.

Pigeons - rats with wings, bringing disease and mess. How would you feel if the town square had as many rats as pigeons?

Yes they are wild life, but they have invaded our towns, dropping their faeces to destroy buildings because they are better fed that way by lazy people.

What a horrible thing to say FranP rats are highly intelligent in fact more intelligent than many people
This world wasn’t just made for humans to walk over everything else and they are not as dirty as many people and they don’t inject themselves with crap and spew all over the streets They just try and live their lives when in many cases their habitat has been destroyed by man

Well said Sillynanny and BlueBelle. Good comments.

FranP

Pigeons - rats with wings, bringing disease and mess. How would you feel if the town square had as many rats as pigeons.

A nasty thing to say? Really?

I think all posters on GN would be offering/asking for advice about getting the rodent control people in, not welcoming the rats into their homes and gardens.
I’m willing to be proved wrong if anyone on this thread wants to tell me they always welcome rats on or in their premises.

Well exactly, Mollygo - rats and mice carry a whole range of diseases which can be transmitted to humans. Would anyone really be happy to welcome them into their house or garden? We live next to a burn (stream) and let's just say any rats which are spotted are usually very swiftly dealt with by our resident (four legged) pest controller.

No and I'm terrified of birds so I would be delighted at her doing this! That apart how is it giving out the wrong message? Most kuds do it...

Mollygo

FranP

Pigeons - rats with wings, bringing disease and mess. How would you feel if the town square had as many rats as pigeons.

A nasty thing to say? Really?

I think all posters on GN would be offering/asking for advice about getting the rodent control people in, not welcoming the rats into their homes and gardens.
I’m willing to be proved wrong if anyone on this thread wants to tell me they always welcome rats on or in their premises.

We had a neighbour who used to love the rats and fed them.

I did like her very much but she was definitely eccentric.

The pigeons sit on our grape vine just outside the bedroom windows and coo away at 5 am, so I keep a jug of water handy to throw at them. However, the noise of the big window opening is enough to make them fly away!

Sorry, pigeons. Just go and coo somewhere else.

I do like to see them when it's raining, sitting on the fence, wings up, getting a shower and pecking away at their mites.

This is hilariously. We chased pigeons in my uni with a silly friend because they were all over the place in my capital city. Never caught one though LOL. They wanted our pastries

Before someone believing we literally ran all day after lectures to chase pigeons, let's say the pigeons would come and wait to give them to eat crumbs from our pastries and one day my friend decided to try to run after them and they flew away LOL

what wrong there is a small innocent child running after birds

No viceversa I would nt want to share my house with rats and mice ( although I did when I lived in the tropics) but I would find a humane way of removing rats or mice from my home I wouldn’t want to kill them They have as much right to life as you and I do we can’t just kill everything we don’t like
Humans carry diseases look at Covid !!! Need I say more

I feel for the OP. Her GD is being portrayed as a pigeon-killing maniac and anyone defending the poor child is assumed to be cruel, mean and disrespectful of wildlife. I wouldn't chase a pigeon (I can't run very far or fast for a start) but I do shoo the blighters away when they swoop into the bus station eyeing people's food. As I keep saying, it's not as though they are trapped - they can fly.

BlueBelle

No viceversa I would nt want to share my house with rats and mice ( although I did when I lived in the tropics) but I would find a humane way of removing rats or mice from my home I wouldn’t want to kill them They have as much right to life as you and I do we can’t just kill everything we don’t like
Humans carry diseases look at Covid !!! Need I say more

A humane way of removing mice and rats from your home?
I’d love to hear how you’d do that.

If you call pest control, they get killed.

No mice or rats I’ve encountered (apart from DGS’ pet rats) have ever sat around waiting to be humanely removed.
Instead, they run across your floors furniture and work surfaces, micturating as they go, chew your wires and gnaw holes in your skirting.
Thats while they’re not busy procreating.

This thread has taken a bizarre turn. A little child chasing pigeons is not an abusive child throwing stones at birds and hitting them with sticks!
Pigeons are used to every sort of noise and movement from people and vehicles. They flock, they land, they scarper and return. Little put them off - even in cities where they fire guns to scare them off - they still return.
By all
Means discourage the child if that’s what the parent wants - but let’s hope the fools who feed wild pigeons are told off too / they are attracting rats to cities and parks!

My kids used to chase seagulls with their arms held out, pretending to fly. Obviously potential serial killers. Humph.

when my son was small i would take him to george square in glasgow and we would feed the pigeons, they would jump up to the bench and take food out of our hand, i would not let my son chase them and recently when out he told his son not to chase them, how would you feel if someone was screaming and chasing you. take some food and let your gd feed them but not chase them.