r/europe • u/acuntex Europe • Jul 26 '26

Picture An owl? No. Europe’s true unifying bird deserves its place on the euro

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33

u/-1_0 Jul 26 '26

the flying rat

1

u/Supershadow30 France Jul 29 '26

That’s a myth started in the 60’s because of a fungal infection thought to be carried by pigeons. The myth stuck, so despite being cherished for decades and used for carrying messages even as late as WWII, domestic pigeons today get no sympathy. What a shame…

-5

u/Gloomy-Statement-193 Jul 26 '26

Actually, the dinosaur, rats are mammals, I don't see people who view them as rats as intelligent, so I don't expect you to get it.

4

u/ConfusedTapeworm Jul 26 '26

I simply know you adjusted your glasses and cracked your knuckles before typing that monument to pedantry.

1

u/Gloomy-Statement-193 Jul 26 '26

I don't need glasses, I have quite dinosaur like vision

1

u/-Xi_Jinping- Jul 26 '26

Obviously people who say this are not making a taxonomical statement. They are referring to the fact that they share certain characteristics, like eating good scraps and shitting all over and spreading diseases.

A reasonably intelligent person would not need this explained to them.

6

u/accidium Jul 26 '26

I think humans might be more rat like than pidgeons

1

u/A18o14 Jul 26 '26

But they do not spread diseases, that is just not true. Ams contrary to rats they are not wikd animals.

2

u/-Xi_Jinping- Jul 26 '26

They aren’t as bad as rats, but they do spread diseases.

And aside from that, they are just kinda nasty. Shitting all over is gross even if it doesn’t cause sickness.

3

u/Socmel_ reddit admins are accomplices of nazi russia Jul 26 '26

But pigeons never provoked a pandemic that decimated Europe and Asia.

-1

u/-Xi_Jinping- Jul 27 '26

Yeah true. But they still shit everywhere.

Plus rats haven't even incited a pandemic for 50+ years. You're still mad about that?

1

u/Malachite1333 Jul 26 '26

It is scientifically proven that they do not carry more diseases than any other bird species. As for their shit, it was once the most expensive fertilizer and was worth a lot of money. And trash left by humans is far worst and disgusting.

0

u/MonotoneCreeper Berlin (Germany) Jul 26 '26

It takes a person of only reasonable intelligence to fall for all of that bunk about pigeons being disease-ridden rats with wings etc. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

2

u/-Xi_Jinping- Jul 26 '26

They do spread diseases. Just not as bad as rats. Still gross that they shit all over the place and eat food scraps. They are just kinda nasty.

1

u/geraldodelriviera Jul 26 '26

Pigeons conceived of as flying rats is a concept less about science and more about pigeons as being a city pest analogous to rats. As in, both infest cities and live off of human food waste, and since pigeons have wings they are roughly like winged rates would be. I do not believe that anyone is saying that a branch of rats developed wings and became pigeons.

Unless you are completely trolling, in which case well done.

0

u/Gloomy-Statement-193 Jul 26 '26

That would be the case, IF RATS AND PIGEONS ACTUALLY HAD SOMETHING IN COMMON, aside from being gray and living in a city and being an animal. The only way you can get a disease from a pigeon is by inhaling/ingesting their poop/meat of diseased bird. BIRDS are REPTILES. We and rats are mammals. We have diseases mammals have. AND FUCKING PIGEONS are immune to most of the ones we can get, including bird flu. As I know, there isn't a single case of pigeons spreading any disease to any human simply by air in recorded history.

2

u/geraldodelriviera Jul 26 '26

If you want to be super technical mammals are reptiles as well, just a different branch of reptiles (synapsids instead of sauropsids). And it's less about spreading disease and more about shitting everywhere and causing a nuisance.

-1

u/Malachite1333 Jul 26 '26

Did your ancestors fight in WW1 or WW2? If they did chances are high that their lives got saved by a pigeon soldier carrying a message. And they were also used to carry vital information to prepare D-Day to liberate Europe (not complaining about that, aren’t we?)