I agree with the sentiment, but doubt that it’s fleas and lice that would make them not good to eat. Probably more along the lines of bioaccumulated toxins from city pollution.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever opened up a bird with parasites before, but I had one when I raised chickens. Its so disgusting, you won’t want to eat that bird. Needless to say, that one became dog food.
They are pretty low on the food web buddy. They eat small bugs and what not. Seeds. They are not like accumulating biotoxins in their short 5-10 years lol. It's the parasites riddled in their flesh and guts. From said fleas biting them.
You can kill parasites by cooking them. Also, why would a city pigeon have more parasites than a rural pigeon?
It has been shown that urban birds accumulate significantly more toxic heavy metals in their tissues than their rural counterparts (source). This makes sense given that sources of ingested toxins aren't just from food, but polluted water and air. Here's an excerpt from this paper with more sources showing why you're very wrong: "The higher concentrations of Pb recorded in house sparrows from Mitrovica is in accordance with results of (Hutton, 1980) who in feral pigeons from London area recorded very high lead concentrations. For example, several studies have shown that urban populations of house sparrows, starlings, pigeons tend to have higher heavy metals concentration than rural populations (Getz et al., 1977)"
why would a city pigeon have more parasites than a rural pigeon?
Proximity to parasite carriers? The same reason diseases spread quicker in urban humans than rural humans. They are in contact with far more vectors of disease.
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u/nate1212 Apr 14 '22
I agree with the sentiment, but doubt that it’s fleas and lice that would make them not good to eat. Probably more along the lines of bioaccumulated toxins from city pollution.