About

Pigeons Wearing Hats refers to a viral video of pigeons on the streets of Las Vegas that went viral on Facebook in December 2019. The practice of pigeons wearing hats became the subject of concern as some questioned whether or not the hats harmed the pigeons.

Origin

On December 5thn 2019, Facebook user bobby.lee.184 posted the video with the caption "Just another day in the neighborhood." The post received more than 178,000 views, 2,000 shares, 755 reactions and 500 comments in less than three months (shown below).

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Days later, the New York Times^[1] published a report on the videos. In the piece, they spoke to Dr. Charles Walcott, a ornithologist at Cornell University said, "I enjoyed the video. I just thought those pigeons with hats were cute[…]I think the thing that I would emphasize is I can’t see that it is causing any great harm to the pigeons. They look like happy pigeons to me. It is hard to know, of course, because they will not talk to us."

Others found issues with the practice. The Instagram ^[2] account for Lofty Hopes, a pigeon advocacy group, posted a video showcasing one of the pigeons with hats and explained that the hats were glued on. They wrote:

luck Norris' hat was stuck on, GLUED very close to his eye (not the side shown in the video). We were able to lift the back of his hat and see that underneath looks bald. We have applied oil with a q tip and are letting it work on deactivating the glue until we drop him off at the vet tomorrow morning. Its unclear at this point if the vet will be able to remove the hat, if he will have us continue with oil, or instruct us allow it molt off. We are just happy that he is safe. Once he is at the vet tomorrow, we are headed back out to see if we can capture Coolamity Jane. Both Cluck Norris and Coolamity Jane were there most of the day today, so we are hoping tomorrow is her day. Neither appear to be bonded to any other bird in the flock, which makes us feel a little better about removing them.

The following day, the publication Audubon^[3] wrore about Mariah Hillman, who runs Lofty Hopes, and their efforts to help pigeons that were found wearing hats.

MAGA Hat Pigeons

On February 19th, 2020, reporter Max Darrow tweeted, "You see the red thing on that pigeon’s head? It’s a 'Make America Great Again' hat. A group released a flock of them downtown Las Vegas on the eve of the Democratic Debate."

You see the red thing on that pigeon’s head? It’s a “Make America Great Again” hat. A group released a flock of them downtown Las Vegas on the eve of the Democratic Debate. @News3LV pic.twitter.com/xtCyd2rA96

— Max Darrow (@MaxNews3LV) February 19, 2020

NBC^[4] later reported that the group was called P.U.T.I.N., "Pigeons United to Interfere Now," had released the birds. They said in a statement, "P.U.T.I.N. have used their pigeons to launch a one of a kind aerial protest piece in response to the arrival of the 2020 Democratic Presidential hopefuls. The release date was also coordinated to serve as a gesture of support and loyalty to President Trump."

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