When Genevieve Yue brought an injured pigeon to Manhattan’s Wild Bird Fund wildlife rehabilitation center last Saturday, she was surprised to find a line outside.

“A couple ahead of me had a bird in their sweatshirt. Other people had birds in Amazon boxes. Mine was in a take-out bag that I’d grabbed from a restaurant,” she says. One passerby asked if people were waiting in line for an ice cream shop.

Yue had found the injured pigeon lying on the sidewalk in her Lower East Side neighborhood and knew the bird needed help. “I have a particular fondness for pigeons. It breaks my heart when I see people treating them like vermin,” she says. She lined a paper bag with a