bread to ducks and geese can result in bone deformities. Like pigeons, ducks may also congregate in large numbers where feeding takes place, resulting in aggression towards humans who don't have food to hand as well as towards other individuals in the group. Ducks can also be messy animals, and the cleanup of an area where they congregate is time consuming. Traditions of feeding the animals Some people oppose such laws claiming that animals such as pigeons can be an amenity for people who do not have company such as friends or family, and say that the laws prohibiting feeding animals in urban places must change. In some countries, such as Greece, feeding the pigeons in cities is a widespread practice. Cultural hostility to feeding animals in cities and laws that ban the practice raise concerns about how humans relate to other living beings in the urban environment. In some areas, feeding animals in a sustainable manner has been encouraged, as without supplementation of food from humans in addition to their natural supply, some animals, especially waterfowl such as ducks, geese and swans, have become malnourished and underweight. Politicians have also protested laws that ban feeding feral pigeons in cities. Feral pigeons in cities existed for thousands of years but only recently in some countries humans started seeing them as a nuisance and became hostile to them. In India, feeding feral animals in cities is considered a noble act. Academicians say that how humans treat animals is related to how humans treat each other and thus raise concerns about the cultural shift from seeing feral city pigeons as harmless in the 1800s to seeing them an undesirable in some countries in the 2000s. See also Protected area References Animal welfare Eating behaviors Animals and humans Wildlife Zoos