Pests or pets? Pigeons have been eating human food for millennia

A small limestone pigeon sculpture from Cyprus dating to 600–480 BC from The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. PHOTO BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Article content Are pigeons domesticated? Or are they wild? Article content They are not pets, though they are sometimes treated that way, fed crumbs and spoken to, trained to expect kindness. Article content Article content Pigeons do not live on the periphery of cities like seagulls or geese. They are right in it, sometimes literally indoors, and they never leave. They are urban wildlife but they are not…