My Ethical Dilemma . . .

should I or shouldn’t I?

Last year, a local pigeon laid two eggs in a planter in front of my front door. Although not the most ideal place since the planter was exposed to people walking by, I figured the pigeon knew what she was doing and left the eggs. I watched them daily until one day, miraculously while I was walking by, one started to hatch! I had never seen an egg hatch before, and this was an unexpected thrill! Watching this tiny creature peck its way out of the egg, then seeming to help the other chick come out of the second egg. The two babies were tiny and vulnerable, and mama pigeon would bring them food and keep them warm as I imagine pigeons have done for eons. Two kids in my building came and named the chicks Zipper and Mable.

I wish there were a happy ending to this story, but unfortunately the chicks made it to 18 days, and one night a predator got them. Predators can be small animals like raccoons or even neighborhood cats, or other birds like hawks. I awoke one morning to open my front door to a horrible scene of chick massacre. I suppose it was inevitable since they were so exposed, but I imagined that the pigeon knew what she was doing and would not have laid her eggs where they wouldn’t be safe. I overestimated the ability of pigeons to think logically, sequentially and coherently (although I’ve read that they actually can conceptualize!). I was devastated.

A few days ago, yet again, a pigeon (could it possibly be the same one?) laid two eggs, not right in the planter in front of my door but off to the side, on the level with my threshold, tucked behind a planter but nevertheless exposed and even more accessible to predators. I thought about perhaps seeing if I could build some kind of protective cage around the space which would protect the eggs and allow mama pigeon access but would keep predators out. When I put out the word among the neighbors in my building, one of them, a woman who happens to be pregnant, asked that “we” not encourage pigeons to be in or near the building as their droppings are toxic to children and pregnant women. I mentioned perhaps I could take the eggs. I even ordered “decoy pigeon eggs” from Amazon thinking I could replace her eggs with the decoys, but I was feeling badly about the whole thing. I didn’t feel right to deceive mama pigeon since she obviously trusted me (I do tend to anthropomorphize non-human creatures). On the other hand, if these eggs are allowed to hatch, they will almost assuredly suffer the same fate as last year’s chicks, and I certainly don’t feel right about that either. My dilemma is essentially: do I let nature take its course and not interfere, or do I interfere and not let the chicks hatch in the first place? Either way, I can feel badly by being passive or I can feel badly by being active. Nature can be cruel.

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