A Japanese taxi driver was arrested after intentionally running over pigeons in the streets of Tokyo. He justified his action by explaining that “the roads belong to humans”.
A Tokyo taxi driver was arrested for deliberately killing a pigeon with his vehicle, according to local police interviewed by AFP on Tuesday, apparently because he was exasperated at coming across a group of these birds on the road. The 50-year-old man was arrested last Sunday for having “used his car to kill a pigeon”, a Tokyo police spokesperson told AFP. “It’s not game,” he saw fit to clarify.
“Roads belong to humans”
During the month of November, this taxi driver accelerated sharply at an intersection as soon as the light turned green, only to rush into a group of pigeons on the ground, according to the local press. The sudden roar of the engine startled a passerby, who then reported the incident to the police.
She took the matter very seriously, going so far as to entrust a veterinarian with an autopsy of the pigeon killed in the collision with the vehicle. “The roads belong to humans, so the pigeons should have gotten out of the way,” the taxi driver reportedly told investigators, according to local media.