The Pope participated in a really nice event where young children released a couple of innocent pure white doves as a beautiful symbol of peace.  Almost immediately a large crow and a seagull saw the doves and attacked.  Both doves appear to have survived the initial assault and flew off into the sunset.  If these were true doves, they are probably dead now.  That is because doves raised by humans don’t have the skill set to survive in the wild.  In addition, being pure white makes for pretty pictures but it also makes the doves a target that even a crow and a seagull couldn’t resist.  The next time they will probably be attacked by a more skilled predator than a crow or a seagull.

By the way, wild doves are almost never pure white.  So odds are these doves were from a breeder.  This probably didn’t end well for the doves.

Sometimes when doves are released they aren’t really doves, they are homing pigeons.  That actually is more humane, because the homing pigeons circle a few times and then fly home for dinner.  In most cases this strategy prevents them from becoming dinner.

In many ways this dove release is an apt description of the real world.  While we all would love to think of a world where gentle creatures can just all get along with peace and love, that ignores reality.  In the real world there are real predators and if someone bigger and stronger is not around to provide protection the innocent get devoured.

It still was a very heartwarming scene, at least until the crow and the seagull got involved.

TDM