Written By : Dave Blount

Since it wouldn’t be fair to the animals for only humans to enjoy the many privileges that come with being oppressed by racism, ecoweenies in formerly Great Britain have extended the coveted status to parakeets.

This week Natural England officially deemed the ring-necked parakeet as a pest, making it possible to shoot the birds without a licence.

However Dr Ian Rotherham, Director of the Environmental Change Research Unit at Sheffield Hallam University, said there is a danger that labelling parakeets as a “nasty alien” just because they are from abroad could be seen as a form of “racism” towards a foreign species.

Intones Dr. Rottenham:

If there is a problem – for example with the birds taking fruit – then we have to take steps to deal with it. If you start to label it as alien then that is some sort of racism. Eco-xenophobia is the label I would use.

Another birdbrain concurs:

Matthew Frith, Deputy Chief Executive of the London Wildlife Trust, said parakeets were “as British as curry” and agreed it was dangerous to label the birds as a pest just because they are foreign.

Farmers complain that the parakeets eat their crops, but rather than resort to violence, it would be more correct of them to open a dialogue, and attempt to establish the root causes of the birds’ pestilent behavior.

Good thing rattus norvegicus doesn’t come from a place where people have swarthy skin, or ecokooks would proclaim rat traps to be racist.

On a tip from Steve T. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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