Cowboys and shepherds became famous for their herding of animals and moving them from pasture to pasture or back home. Moving the animals was a necessity even if the animals didn't like it and many breeds of dogs were even developed to aid them. One of my pet peeves is when people chase animals not out of necessity but for the simple joy they have to terrorize them and making them run or fly.
During a recent trip to Venice, my wife, Michele and I decided to have lunch in St. Mark's square. Pigeons there have made the place famous and feeding them is encouraged to the point that there are virtually thousands of birds. We settled down for a lunch on an outdoor table in the square watching the birds and people's interaction with them.
Most of the people loved them and purchased food or brought bread or seeds. If you held your hand out they would fly to your hand and feed. Others would lay on their backs and have the birds perch all over their bodies picking up seed. When one decided to fly, sometimes thousands would fly and most of the crowd would be in awe and others would duck down afraid they would be hit by a bird or its droppings.
We thoroughly enjoyed it until I notice a young boy intent on kicking and chasing the pigeons. I immediately stopped eating my meal and watched intently sure that the parents would stop the terrorizing behavior. When it didn't happen I got up and Michele immediately knew what I was about to do ……….. "Don't touch the kid or you'll probably get arrested!"
Although I was upset with the child doing any physical punishment to him in a foreign country and ending up in a foreign prison with a foreign 'girlfriend' was not my idea of a vacation. I managed to get between the boy and the pigeons he was chasing and leaned down and yelled out 'No' rather loudly. He stopped in his tracks and fearfully headed back to his parents. The parents didn't speak English but I managed to relay to them with hand gestures that chasing the pigeons was not to be tolerated. They put a hand on the boy and slowly walked away.
I triumphantly sat down and began to eat my meal again when yet another child came into view with his younger sibling in an umbrella stroller trying to run over pigeons. Michele didn't get a chance to say anything before I darted off and repeated my tirade.
By the end of my meal I had stopped six children (all boys) from chasing the birds. As we walked away Michele said although I did the right thing by stopping them, as soon as we leave there will be another child doing the same thing. "I know you are right ," I replied "but also imagine if everyone in the world would not tolerate that kind of behaviour and after we left someone else took my place stopping those boys from terrorizing the pigeons …. we would live in a much better world."
