Oakland firefighters saved a pigeon, and the internet is losing it

There are special oxygen masks for animals, which are designed to fit deeper over a snout or beak, and there are programs to donate sets to your favorite fire company. Back when I did this, masks came in three sizes: small (like for the size of birds or hamsters), medium (cats and rabbits), and large (large dogs). I liked making that contribution to my community :)

“Reminder that we domesticated pigeons and then abandoned them when they were no longer useful to us,” one user wrote. “This is literally the least we can do.”

This is inaccurate. We didn’t domesticate all pigeons (only fancy pigeons, not rock doves like you see in cities), and the ones that we did domesticate survive just fine. The rock dove succeeded so well in modern life because human society matches their natural environment so well: rocks (concrete) everywhere.