Feeding birds versus feeding humans

by philg

Here’s a sign from the Boston Public Garden:

City officials say that giving birds free food and shelter within the City of Boston will lead to overpopulation and environmental damage. Furthermore, they’ll be reluctant to migrate away.

I wonder if these folks ever walk over to the government offices that run the SNAP (food stamps; free food for humans) and public housing (free housing for humans, including Barack Obama’s ordered-by-a-judge-to-migrate Aunt Zeituni (she apparently preferred NOT to migrate, despite the deportation order)) programs and, if so, how the conversations go…

[The Boston Housing Authority says it “processes over 10,000 new applications every year. There are thousands of more applicants than there are available housing units – so the selected waiting lists can be very long.” In other words, there is already “overpopulation” if you consider the mismatch between the supply of housing and the demand from humans.]

6 thoughts on “Feeding birds versus feeding humans”

  1. If you have a cockroach problem the last thing you should do is leave more food out!

  2. Also note that when non-native birds start living in places where they traditionally haven’t lived, and start displacing native birds, they are called “invasive species” and most bird enthusiasts consider this to be a serious problem that needs to be stopped.

  3. According to Swift, the Irish did manage to procreate at such prodigious speed, and despite the complete lack of any form of state funded welfare, that the English had to start eating them, to keep the numbers in check. Or something like that, I am a bit fuzzy about the details.

  4. the Irish did manage to procreate at such prodigious speed,

    One set of great-grandparents came to MA from Ireland in 1900. They had ten children; the last one of the ten to die was my grandmother in 1987.

  5. The nanny state also provides free birth control to humans, but not to pigeons, so maybe it all balances out.

  6. overpopulation is the last taboo subject. Discussing it is more of a lightning rod than abortion, gun control, transgender issues, and immigration all rolled into one.

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