Tuesday 28 January 2014

White doves - what would St Francis say?

"You're free, free, free! And dead, dead, dead"
Doves released by the Holy Father from the balcony overlooking St Peter's Square were, to be finicky, not doves but white domestic pigeons. Nonetheless, they were pet birds.

That little ceremony needs to stop, and stop now.

Apart from being rather wet and mushy symbolism it is an act akin to releasing a pet rabbit in a wolf enclosure at the zoo.

Or, taking one's cat for a walk around Piccadilly Circus, sans lead.

Domestic pets are unable to fend for themselves in the wild; they are at the mercy of nature red in tooth and claw (and beak).

They should not be sacrificed for the sake of a good photocall opportunity.

Italians may have a different regard for such matters but, in Britain and, I suspect, North America, we have a sensible but humane outlook as far as animals are concerned.

Pigeons should remain in their lofts.

We already have a perfectly good white dove at our disposal.

3 comments:

  1. Once ravens have established their territory they will defend it, and rightly so. They are sound and reliable birds, they know and observe the rules, and expect others, including doves, to do the same. I mean if odd bods started wandering about your back garden, you would get a bit fed up?

    The raven, being a sensible chap dealt with the windy dove first, and would have had a go at the herring gull after that, if still around.

    The gulls are the real nuisance. They are unscrupulous, opportunistic, relativistic, un-trustworthy, nasty, neo-modernist “Larus Argentati”, and have no right to be in the Vatican.
    They should be out in the peripheries of the Med., or wherever.

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  2. What would St Francis say?

    "Look, Brother and Sister Birdies! Dinner!" ?

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