want to explain my position as expressed (or politely, amicably explained) to local authorities.

Animals need water and food, more so in summertime. Especially the water. Water is life, life is water. We bought several stainless steel bowls to nourish the local cats, dogs, birds, and occasionally other animals. We change the water at least once a day to ensure it’s never stagnant. The government and the media actively encourage doing so, more so when there are heatwaves.

In dry places, animals tend to hang out not far from water. It’s an instinctive tendency.

For over a year we had birds in our back yard. This year, to appease thin-skinned people, we moved them to the front, to a public space, an open space with lots of grass and trees.

The queens and kings of Britain have protected wild birds, which they saw as almost equal to humans. The government encouraged people to offer food to birds, e.g. in their back gardens. And because as a society we are governed by rules, not by men, what matters is policy. What it boils down to is the universal rule, so I checked the official .gov sites, just to ensure we feed the birds correctly while complying with whatever it says there.

Over time we reduced the frequency of the feeding (we try to buy them the best seeds available), but not the quantity (once day in large quantities instead of 10-20 times a day in smaller doses), which is fine as long as more people do this. Our neighbours feed them and like them, but there is a resistance from one very malicious couple that does drugs in the back yard, forcing other people to inhale bad stuff for over a decade already. Apparently the birds are “dirty”, but drugs being smoked is not. I recently saw articles about bans on bird-feeding in India (specifically in Mumbai), despite such bans being highly immoral, resulting in actual hunger strikes, albeit mostly by Jains.

We need to resist people who hate and antagonise wild animals, more so knowing that the animals cannot speak to humans (for themselves) and they have feelings too. An act of resistance, wherein you protect the lives of non-human creatures, is nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of.

The pretext that bird-feeding will attract vermin is not supported by any evidence and it also discriminates against some particular animals, who do no harm. If policy changes are to be made, then evidence is needed. While policies remain unchanged it’s not OK to apply any on an ad hoc, improvised basis. When council workers issue contradictory instructions, it then necessarily means somebody is lying.

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