Butt and Bird

Throwaway Gag.

I was outside a grocery shop the other day when I saw a man throwing away a cigarette butt in '70's cop show style. Nowadays that's unusual enough to be slightly shocking and it got me thinking. All those mangy London pigeons whose diet consisted of fag ends and flat white bread - what do they live off now that smoking is out of fashion? There must be a funny illustration in there somewhere!

As a responsible art professional, I decided to do a web search to check my butt facts.

It turns out that cigarette butts are toxic waste. Used butts are full of toxic compounds, like nicotine, arsenic and lead, that leach into the ground and water damaging living organisms. That fluffy white stuff in cigarette filters is made of a type of plastic called cellulose acetate and it's not easily degradable. It can take up to 10 years to break down and does so into tiny particles which end up in the soil and contribute to water pollution.

There's no real evidence that cigarette butts have ever formed a significant part of a pigeon's diet. Some urban house finches line their nests with them. Scientists think that this fights against parasites. Unfortunately, studies also show that the butts cause genetic damage to the finches by interfering with cell division.

In conclusion, butts are not funny.