AIBU to tell a parent not to let their child torment pigeons?

[aliceyyyy2654]

I was walking in my town today and saw a young child around 6/7 chasing pigeons. This isn’t an unusual occurrence and I know children often do this, it’s natural for them.
this child was trying to kick the pigeons and shouting ‘die’ at them.
the mum/grandma (unsure due to slightly older age) just sat doing nothing. I went to the lady ‘excuse me, please could you not let your child torture animals, it’s disgusting’.
I didn’t speak to the child because ultimately it’s not her fault it’s the adults.

a man (not sure if known to them) said ‘shut up bitch’ to me, which I probably stupidly replied ‘fuck off’ and walked away.

AIBU to have spoken to the woman?
I accept unreasonable to swear but I wasn’t expecting him to come at me from behind like that.

I hate it when I see kids chasing pigeons. Yes they are a messy nuisance, but they are living creatures.

Yanbu to say sonething. You could have phrased it differently.

Hopefully, it'll give them something think about it.

Totally appreciate that. I shouldn’t have sworn at the man for sure but I’m not sure I could have said much different to the woman :/

Ywnbu. Some red-faced beefed up twat big man attacked a gull this week in St Ives because it stole his food. This is what these little shits turn into.

All rather vile, the woman, the child and the man too. Sorry this happened to you. Most people are not as crap as this, the child is crappy because the parents are crappy. Better give them a wide berth, those types arent capable of upward growth, they just lash out. Yuck.

Alfred Hitchcock had the right idea

Honestly breaks my heart, I grew up by the sea and am not a big fan seagulls but animal abusers are the worst of the bunch

I do like your response. But I doubt it being chided would make any difference to those kind of people anyway as they say there and allowed it . Do choose your battles as blokes like that can get very aggressive if they are criticised .

On a completely different strand of thought . Do pigeons really care about being chased ? Surely they could just fly off or move if they were frightened.

This. He punched it to death in front of young children, like a maniac.

Op, I agree with you. Chasing is one thing, kicking is quite another. You were right to say something and I bet other people were glad you did.

I would have understood their anger more if I had spoken to the child directly but I don’t like to make a habit of scaring kids haha

I would stop my child from doing it (and have!)but I think torturing the pigeons is a bit strong, they just fly off and come straight back. Unless he was actually making contact with them?

she hadn’t (that I saw) made contact but was activity trying to.

They were angry because it’s all they’ve got. Numb and narrow range of responses in those types. From grump to abusive and back again, ghastly. Bringing up a little psychopath by the sound of it.

My mil is scared of birds and I was raging when I discovered she'd encouraged my son to chase and kick at pigeons. I agree it's disgusting. I stop it immediately.

YANBU to speak to her and the man was wrong to have a go at you but I think you didn't need to be so harsh.

I remember once when we were out and about when the kids were younger DH went off to get something from a shop and after he seemed to be gone a long time to I time, so I was peering down the street for a moment when a young man came up to me and said something similar to what you said because DS was chasing pigeons (and while he wasn't shouting 'Die' he was stomping in their direction over enthusiastically, which wasn't nice, but was also out of character).

I was really upset because the man made me feel like I'd been encouraging my child to hurt animals and he obviously concluded had a nasty and aggressive kid because of one moment, which he isn't at all. Obviously still told DS to stop right away but the guy didn't need to be so harsh.

I think if you want to stop somebody doing something, you have to be a bit more persuasive. Telling somebody that what their child is doing is disgusting is unlikely to ever get a good response.

I’m so pleasantly surprised by the responses. I firmly believe that animals and anyone/thing that doesn’t have its own voice should be protected by those who do.

nice to see fellow minded people about. I’m a tad embarrassed for stooping to their level and swearing but I’ll take it as a lesson

What would you have said? If anything at all

Yabu

Kids chase pigeons

That kid was a bit much but stay out of it honestly

Really sorry that was your experience. Had the child not been trying to kick and shouting die I wouldn’t have said anything at all. Sounds like your child was exhibiting normal behaviour for a child and the man was unnecessarily harsh

I probably wouldn’t have said anything about the pigeons but I am the sort of person who says things so I know where you are coming from. I might have gone up with a friendly smile and said “would you mind asking your son to stop chasing the birds? I know he doesn’t mean to, but he’s really scaring them”

out of interest, at what point with animal abusers would you say someone shouldn’t stay out of it?
appreciate your opinion though

You used overly emotive and judgemental language “torture” “disgusting”.

You weren’t wrong to challenge them (and I would have) but you could have said “please don’t let your child chase the pigeons, it’s cruel” or something like that.

To be fair, I think child abusers are worse.