Article: How Pigeons Became Rats. Social Problems, 55 (1) Feb, 2008
Summary: There’s nothing really inherently wrong with the oft-maligned pigeon, at least not when compared with any other bird. Rather, the problem seems to be that they just don’t know when to stay out of our way. In trying to discover why the pigeon became such a hated animal, Colin Jerolmack looked at New York Times articles from 1851 to 2006 (as well as supplementary articles from other papers) and found that because of our societal disctinction between nature and culture, animals are “out of place” (and therefore a problem) when “they are perceived to transgress spaces designated for human habitation.” While it’s usually framed as a health issue, the real problem seems to be that pigeon’s don’t understand they are to stay out of spaces designed for human use. As such, the term “rat with wings” neatly encapsulates the way modern Americans have come to view the pigeon.