Landers, the author of a brand-new environmental book called Eating Aliens, is a 34-year-old professional hunter with crew-cut hair, a crisp khaki shirt, and a knife poking out of his back pocket. He’s not from these parts. Perhaps that’s why he’s eyeing that dirty city pigeon like it’s lunch. Doesn’t he know where those things have been? He creeps closer to the bird, rock in one hand, apple in the other. Stalking another bird nearby is his friend John Durant, a New York City legend who sticks to a hunted-and-gathered diet, self-identifies as a caveman, and told the Colbert Report that his dream woman wouldn’t be able to digest modern processed food. Durant readies his rock, throws, and hits his target. The pigeon is stunned and Landers tackles it like a football. His knife flashes, and in a moment, it’s over. It’s also lunchtime. Landers doesn’t hunt pigeon for the heck of it. He specializes in invasive species: non-native plants or animals, like pigeons, that can cause damage to the environment and human health. Millions of these invaders plague every habitat across the US: iguanas decimate native bird populations in Florida by noshing their eggs, while giant Canada geese get sucked into jet engines and wreak havoc in New York. He’s made it his mission to prove that there’s an easy solution to our problem. “It’s our responsibility to take them out decently,” Landers says. As it stands, invasives are typically dealt with in one of three ways. They’re ignored by policymakers and so they proliferate, endangering native animals, irreparably altering ecosystems, and even threatening human life. They’re rounded up and gassed en masse or dumped in landfills. Or they’re the target of ineffective eradication plans by local bounty programs or national organizations like the USDA. The better, more ethical alternative? Eat ’em, says Landers. That was the plan for the bird nestled in Landers’s backpack. This is his very first city pigeon—the species evaded him when he wrote Eating Aliens, a loss he laments in the final chapter “The Ones That Got Away.” But before we dig in, I have some questions (and qualms). Why would someone even want to do this? Read on for more!
