A shocking video has emerged showing a worker catching a pigeon with his bare hands on the streets of New York City before taking the bird into the kitchen of his halal food cart.
The alarming incident was recorded by commuter Oriana Winchester Biersack.
She was waiting for the bus in Queens when she saw the vendor attempting to grab a pigeon from a flock and bring it back to his MS Halal food truck.
Biersack shared the video on her Instagram account and wrote:
“Omg, I can’t believe what I just saw!”
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“Please don’t buy food from this food truck!” Biersack added in her post.
“He throws food scraps to the pigeons and then he captures the pigeons to sell them!
“I swear I have seen crazy but this tops it all!
“This food truck is located in Queens, New York, at the corner of Queens Blvd and Junction Blvd, across from the Rego Park mall, right in front of TD Bank.
“Spread the word guys!” she added.
“I am beyond disgusted!”
In a statement to the New York Post, Biersack added:
“After that, I saw him grab water and he was rinsing his hand and swishing water in his mouth…
“He was sticking his fingers into his mouth and scrubbing his teeth with his fingers.”
According to The Post, one of the cart’s workers, Muhammad Mola, mentioned that the individual caught on camera was a “temporary worker from Bangladesh.”
Mola argued that the individual was “unfamiliar with local laws and customs.”
He then went on to claim the new “temporary worker” was actually just trying to rescue the pigeon.
“But the nine-year cart veteran insisted the man — who he said is from his home country and was just filling in at the cart, which sells items such as meat patties, burgers, and chicken or lamb over rice — was simply trying to rescue a bird whose legs got tied up,” the Post noted.
“He claimed the bird was freed after the ordeal.”
“In our country everyone loves pigeons,” said Mola.
“They take care of them.
“The law is different here and he’s new, he doesn’t know the law here.”
Pigeon meat, called “kobutor” in Bengali, is considered a delicacy in Bangladesh.
The incident is reminiscent of the spate of reports out of Springfield, Ohio last year.
Local residents were alleging Haitian migrants were capturing and eating pet cats and dogs, geese, and other wildlife from local parks and public areas.
The migrants were accused of eating the animals after killing them.
The issue sparked an intense online debate that even made its way to the presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on September 10.
Last month, a woman was jailed in Ohio after she was arrested for killing and eating her neighbor’s pet cat, as Slay News reported.
27-year-old Allexis T. Ferrell of Canton was jailed after pleading guilty to a charge of animal cruelty.
As Slay News reported at the time, Ferrell was arrested in August at a housing complex after she “stomped” on a cat’s head to kill it.
She then began eating the cat in front of her horrified neighbors, according to WJW-TV.
They later released the shocking body camera footage of the arrest.
Officers said they saw blood on Ferrell’s feet as well as fur on her lips.
Ferrell could be seen crouching over the dead cat when police arrived.
“Somebody get rubber gloves, she’s covered in blood,” an officer can be heard saying in the footage.
Blood can be seen smeared on the driveway as neighbors watch on.
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